Iliff and Saltillo UM Churches
August 7, 2005
“When Prayer is Not Working--Some things to Check”
Mark 11:22-26
INTRODUCTION: A father and his 10 year old son were looking at books one day at WalMart. His father said, “Here’s an interesting book,” ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Prayer.’”
The son quickly replied, “Dad, you don’t need to read that book. It’s only for idiots.”
All kind of books have been written about prayer. Most people say they believe in prayer and most Christians want to have a good prayer life. We want to feel that our prayers make a difference and that we’re not talking just to be talking. We want to know that God hears our prayers and is paying attention to them.
But sometimes have you ever felt like they were not getting through? That they were just bouncing off the ceiling or like there is a wall between you and God that you just can’t get through?
People say, “My prayers just don’t reach God.” Sometimes people will come up with pat answers like, “If you had enough faith, your prayer would be answered,” or “if you were praying in the RIGHT WAY,” you would see results. There is no one reason why prayers are not working, so when you or others are struggling with prayer, don’t be so quick to come up with that “classic answer.”
Scripture helps us to check and see where the problem is. Today’s scripture mentions one of these problems that breaks the communication line, but first I want to look at some other things that can be considered Prayer Circuit Breakers.
A Circuit breaker in your house is an electrical device that interrupts the flow of electricity from one site to the other. Prayer Circuit Breakers are things in our life that interrupts or hinders our communication with God.
“When Prayer is Not Working--Some Things to Check”--I found several things that may be identified as the problem for us. It is not just that we don’t have enough faith or that we are not praying with the right prayer formula. And these are all things that can be corrected.
Let’s see what we can come up with that will help us to pray more effectively.
1. A Disregard for God’s Law: About 500 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Zechariah recorded these words from the Lord:
“but they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. [The people of Israel have] made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord was very angry. ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen’ says the Lord (Zechariah 7:11-13).
Rejecting or ignoring God’s laws is one circuit breaker that causes our prayers to be hindered. This scripture written many hundreds of years ago is still applicable for us today. We need to check up to see where we are outright rejecting what scripture tells us we should be putting into practice in our daily lifestyle. So many Christians are living no different from the world that they don’t seem to realize the difference between right and wrong. God’s laws have been modified and changed so drastically that they are not recognizable by many people. Maybe you say, “I’m not rejecting them outright. I’m just ignoring them. I know what I SHOULD DO and what God REALLY WANTS me to do, but I’m just not doing it. Sometimes we think, “Oh, well, God is merciful. He’ll overlook what I do. And we go on our merry way.”
Rejecting or ignoring the laws of God leaves a bad taste in His mouth. In Proverbs King Solomon said, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable” (Proverbs 28:9).
The Message Bible says, “God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him.”
A sinful lifestyle with unconfessed sin, deliberately going on in this pattern of ignoring or rejecting God’s laws will clog up the flow of our answer. Psalm 66:16-20 says, “If I had CHERISHED sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice. Praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!”
The Psalmist is praising God for his forgiveness and letting others know that if he CHERISHED or tolerated sin in his heart that God wouldn’t have listened. The idea of CHERISHED sin is where you know something is downright wrong, downright sin and you hang on to it anyway. You are making a HOME for your sin by HARBORING it.
ILLUSTRATION: Norman Vincent Peale related how that, as a boy, he once bought a large black cigar which he began to smoke as he made his way along a quiet side street. He was feeling quite bold until he saw his father half a block away. He tried to hide the cigar behind his back during their meeting, and, searching desperately for something to say, he made a certain request of his father: "My father’s voice wasn’t harsh when he answered; it was simply firm. ’Norman," he said, ’one of the first lessons you should learn is this: never make a petition and at the same time try to hide a smoldering disobedience behind your back."’ --From "How To Pray" by Norman Vincent Peale
Confession of sin unplugs the prayer pipeline. It’s like Spiritual Drano.
2. Pride: Another circuit breaker that is mentioned time after time in the scriptures is pride. Sometimes people feel, “I’m so good, I do this and this, I help my neighbor, I give generously, I go to church and pray, I....I...”
Humility before God appeals to God. Pride and self righteousness don’t mix very well with prayer. It is the prayer of the humble of heart which gets a favorable response from God. Someone once said, “Greater than the prayer is the spirit in which it is uttered.” A scripture that exemplifies this is Luke 18:9-14 in which a Pharisee stood up to pray and said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evil doers, adulterers or like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get...” The tax collector said, “God have mercy on me a sinner.” All of our pride and self righteousness doesn’t cut it with God.
3. Wrong Motives: James 4:1-3 talks about prayer when he says, “when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” They were not praying with an attitude of God’s will be done, but rather “my agenda be done.” Do we want to manipulate God for selfish purposes?
On a cartoon a little boy was kneeling by his bed in prayer. “Listen to this, God, here’s an offer you can’t refuse.”
What is the motive behind your prayer for that job promotion, for good grades in school? So you can crow about it to others??? For good weather? For asking God for a new car? Is it so you can look better than the Jones? Is it so you can go to the beach or so that the farmer’s crops will grow?
A pastor was asking for prayer requests on day and a parishioner whispered to the friend sitting beside her, “When presented as the necessary details of a prayer request, you can say anything about anyone and it’s not really gossip.”
We don’t want to raise ourselves up at the expense of others. When we lift up petitions to the Lord and our motives are wrong, should we expect God to honor them?
When asking God for something, ask yourself, “Do I ultimately want to please God with my request?” Wrong motives are circuit breakers.
4. Broken Relationships: Paul wrote to the early church community saying, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect...so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” This chapter deals with strife and bickering not only between husbands and wives but in our relationships with others. If you are always bickering about something it will break the communication line. Verse 10-12 says, “whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.”
How we treat others matters to God. If our relationship is unhealthy, fractured, or completely severed, the effectiveness of our prayers will suffer. Peter writes, “our prayers will be hindered.” Although Peter mentions a husband or wife, the principle applies to all of our relationships. Broken relationships are circuit breakers.
5. Unforgiveness: Now back to today’s scripture. The transition between verses 24 and 25 is abrupt but there is a connection. Usually we only hear verses 22 and 23. Nothing is mentioned about verse 24. Maybe it is because it hits too close to home. To be effective prayer must be offered in faith, that’s true. But it must also be offered in a spirit of forgiveness. Faith AND the willingness to forgive are two conditions of effective prayer as shown in today’s scripture. How do we get to the place where unforgiveness is in our heart in the first place?
Sometimes it comes through people who say or do things to us and we say, “I’m OFFENDED” over that. Being offended has kept more people out of church than any other thing. People will say, “I’ll never go back to that church because of what he said or what she did. I won’t forgive that person turns into I can’t forgive because we have wallowed around in the offense for so long. God hates unforgiveness in his children, but forgiveness does not always happen overnight.
The worst thing you can tell someone who has been hurt over something is to self-righteously say, “You HAVE to forgive or you’ll go to hell.” Forgiveness is something you have to WILL in your heart. I WANT to forgive comes first. We say in the Lord’s prayer on Sundays, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If we walk in unforgiveness, we are giving the devil a foothold in our lives. There is no protection from temptation if you’re walking in unforgiveness. Start rooting out the unforgiveness by WANTING TO. Realize that being OFFENDED is a trick of the enemy to rob you. Jesus told his disciples, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...” (John 10:10).
Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to OVERLOOK an offense.” Why? Ezekiel 33:10 says, “Our OFFENSES and sins weigh us down and we are wasting away because of them.”
Mark 11:25 says, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Unforgiveness is a circuit breaker. Let it drop. Leave it and let it go. Psalm 119:165 says, “Great peace have they who love your law; nothing shall OFFEND them and make them stumble.”
This is just five circuit breakers to effective prayer. There are many others we could explore. What kind of prayers have you been praying lately? Do you think any of these things have been causing your prayers to go unanswered?
1. What about disregarding or ignoring God’s law?
2. Are you being prideful?
3. Do you have wrong motives?
4. Are there broken relationships that need to be mended?
5. Are you walking in unforgiveness?
These things can be repaired. David’s prayer is a good one for us today.
“Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts, See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Amen
