Ingredients of Effective Prayer (7)

This is the 11th post in a series on Praying Effectively. We talked about what effective prayers are and in the most recent post we learned that effective prayer requires that we are willing to be persistent and willing to wait on God. If you are just joining me, please see the end for a special note before continuing!


(7). Righteous character and lifestyle.

To knowingly entertain and tolerate sin in our life is self-deception because God is not mocked and whatever we sow we shall reap (Gal. 6:7). Sin separates us from intimate communion with God.

Isaiah 59:1-3
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue has muttered perversity.

Psalms 66:16-20
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!

James 5:16
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Acts 10:1-5
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!”
And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?”
So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter.

[All emphasis is mine]

There is forgiveness for sins we confess and turn our backs on, and God is indeed patient towards us because of His great love and mercy. Nevertheless, we cannot live any way we want, fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and given to worldliness, and expect to receive God’s attention to our prayers.

[This is the 11th post in a series on the subject of prayer. In the previous installment we looked at the need for persistence, consistency and faith that is willing to wait.  These posts are interspersed among other blog topics so for the easy identification of related posts, look for the label 'praying effectively - series' in the sidebar. If you are just now joining in I recommend that you read the first post where I shared my reason for doing this series. I hope to share practical keys and insight into praying effectively, in bite-size blog posts which you can easily follow.]