Hypocrite's Prayer Series

Let me close with one last thing to get us back to our text. Peter says that our prayers are hindered and that we need to treat our wife right. And I have this picture. I thought of this scenario with my imagination. I just thought of a guy praying. "Okay, God, say, I want to pray for favor, favor, favor. I'm going into the workplace, and I've got a big deal. I'd love to close that big deal. So if you could get that big deal. And, of course, you know I've been waiting on that promotion, and the promotion, I'm just praying you give me the breakthrough for that. And of course, all the other good things you want to give me and the blessings, I'm ready to receive them 'cause I'm ready to get them. So, Lord, any time you want to give them to me, I'm good with that. In your name, amen.

And I think God is like, "Wow, I liked a lot of that. You know, a lot of that was good. Some of that not so much. But I liked a lot of it, and I was thinking of answering that, because you know the reason I put you in that workplace is I really wanted you to reach the president. You know, you're going to be the one that is going to reach the president of the company and share faith with him, so I would love to give you that promotion. And, of course, you know the big deal, that's really important to me, too, because, you know, I wanted you to be a Kingdom Builder because there is a project I want you to fund. So I would love to answer those, but what I want to do is I want to just check a few references before I go and answer your prayer requests."

And I can see the guy, like, "Absolutely, Lord, no problem. Here is my reference list. Here is my golf league guys and a couple of coworkers. You know, a couple guys form Rotary. Just in case you didn't know well, of course you know not all of them are saved. But, you know, there is my references."

And God is like, "No, no, that's okay. That's okay. There is only one. And I already know who I'm going to check the reference of."

And I get this picture of God going and kneeling down next to your wife while she is praying. He goes, "I'm just checking your reference for your prayer request. I'm just going to listen here."

And if your wife prays like this: "God, I just pray you'd help my husband with his anger problem. It scared me last night. It scared me. I think it scared the kids. God, if I'm doing anything wrong, convict me of that, because just the anger is so bad. God, I'd love for him to spend more time with the kids and play with them. It doesn't even seem like he has time for them any more. Could you just tell him we've got enough, we've got enough. He doesn't have to keep chasing money after money. We want him around more. And, Lord, I'm trying to be a good wife, but I, I caught him with that pornography, and just could you convict him of that because I just it's breaking my heart that he's bringing that into our marriage. I wish he wouldn't swear in front of the kids. And so if you could take care of those things, for me and the lady I need to be."