Word of Encouragement (02/18/2025)
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (2 Chron. 7:12–16)
We will continue reflecting on the proper posture of prayer. We saw that the most basic factor is to seek God’s face above all. Another important factor is the willingness to part with sin: “...and turn from their wicked ways...” (v. 14).
This is another reminder that we are dealing with a holy God. As gracious as He is, this truth should never be forgotten because God is simple: there is no division in God and, therefore, His grace is never apart from His holiness, justice, etc. Sin disrupts our fellowship with God. The more mature a believer is, the greater disruption he experiences. We cannot think that sin will have minimal effect on us because we are doing well spiritually. It is antinomian to think that sin doesn’t affect our interaction with God. If sin doesn’t affect our fellowship with God, it may be because it was already in serious trouble. Even though the relationship between God and His elect can never be broken (because it is unilaterally established by God’s grace), the same cannot be said about our fellowship with God (because it is a two-way street).
James says that a double-minded person, who prays with doubts, should not expect to have his prayers answered (James 1:6-7). If so, how about a person who refuses to let go of his sins? Can he expect to receive any answer from God? So, James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
I suspect that many of us know what it is like to pray for something while the Holy Spirit is convicting us of our sins. We try to suppress His voice by praying loudly and urgently for our needs and wishes. But His voice does not go away. The harder we try to suppress it, the clearer it becomes. In the meantime, our prayer becomes more and more hollow. Any confidence that God will answer our prayer is sapped away. Our heart is hardened as we try to ignore the Holy Spirit. It is a miserable place to be.
It is not that God is a cruel Master, delighting in our misery. He knows that nothing is more dangerous and harmful to us than to live with our sins. Getting our prayers answered while we harbor and relish our sins is dangerous. To think that God doesn’t care about our sins and will answer our prayers if we pray persistently enough is detrimental to our spiritual life. So, it is out of love that God calls us to turn away from our sins as we come to God in prayer. May the Holy Spirit convince us of this truth and grow us in holiness.