Psalm 66:18
We must remember who it is that we are contacting when we pray. It is the Most Holy God, whose Holiness is so Holy that when we really encounter Him, He makes us Holy. You can’t really come into God’s matchless presence without something changing in you. We are all so much more sinful that we really realize.
This is why many people who write about prayer suggest that we start with a time of praise and adoration, considering the attributes of the One before whom we are bowing. Studying God’s names, which reveals all that He is, has the effect of humbling us greatly, which will cause us to bow our hearts before Him even more.
The next thing suggested is that we enter into confession, which will surely come about as we allow God to search our hearts. Don’t think that it is enough to just confess your deeds that you think of in your own power that is sufficient, because when God reveals His view of your heart He will not only show you deeds, but causes of any type of bentness.
If our prayers are hindered the most by unconfessed sin in our lives, surely one of the first things we should do is to agree to Psalm 139:23,24—”Search me, O God and see if there be any wicked way in me.” Then wait before the Lord as He shows you what to confess. Remember that confession is to “Agree with God’s view of our condition, as He shows it to us.” It isn’t confessing what we see, it is confessing what HE sees.
This process gets us ready to bear the Lord’s Jesus’ prayers more than any other thing we can do. A purified heart can then hear what God has on His mind, and this will many times lead to intercession for His concerns in the world. One of the most common reasons that we aren’t very effective in praying for big issues is that our own heart’s condition is getting in the way.
The purpose of scripture is also to show us our condition, which often leads to prayers of confession. It is the confessions of the saints saints that causes God to empower us for intercession so that His purposes in the world can be accomplished. Don’t think that you will be used much for prayer concerns if your own life isn’t in a constant state of being changed.
A believer’s life should have something changing in it every single day. We need to be continually cleansed from our own unknown condition and to be continually cleansed from the defilements of walking in an unclean world. It isn’t possible to live in a sinful place like we do without being offended by others over and over again.
Forgiveness washes us clean and fits us to be praying for others again. Just in case you might be thinking that you never get offended, check the condition of your thinking when you get out in traffic and view the selfish driving of others, which reveals our own selfish driving! It’s a zoo out there—many times the animal is us!
Prayer requires that we deal with God—this God who is determined on nothing less than the total renovation of our lives. We would rather have a religious bull session.
Eugene Peterson
Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
John Bunyan
To confess our sins to God is not to tell Him anything He doesn’t know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.
Frederick Buechner
Until known sin is judged and renounced, we pray and plead in vain.J. Oswald Sanders
My biggest problem is not demons. I am my biggest problem. It is only when God has cleansed my own wicked heart that participation in the redeeming work of intercession becomes possible. It is then that the power to change history is released through prayer.
John Dawson
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