Devotional Life · Obedience and Discipline · Exhortation and Repentance · Trust and Faith

Hindered prayers

3 min read, approximately

“You husbands, likewise, live with your wives wisely, honoring the woman as the more fragile vessel and as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7)

Generally, 1 Peter 3:7 is addressed to husbands, urging us to treat a woman as the more fragile vessel. Yet, for some strange reason, we forget the end of the verse, and that is what we will focus on today. Why do we so often not see answers to our prayers? Let us look at the following points that the Lord’s Word gives us: \1. How can we expect to pray to the Lord if we have no faith?

“And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:22)

“But let them ask in faith, without doubting at all, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed from side to side.” (James 1:6)

\2. Do we pray for the person who has hurt us?

“And when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your offenses. For if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your offenses.” (Mark 11:25-26)

\3. In a restaurant, would we accept soup with a fly in it? Likewise, would the Lord accept our prayers if there is sin in our hearts?

“If I had regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me.” (Psalms 66:18)

\4. What about the proud (haughty, greedy, arrogant, vain, conceited, overbearing, thinking themselves better than others)…?

“But he gives greater grace. That is why it says: God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

“Whoever closes their ear to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be heard.” (Proverbs 21:13)

\5. Do we keep his precepts and commandments? Are we obedient?

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing before him.” (1 John 3:21-22)

\6. And now, how are things with our wife or husband?

“You husbands, likewise, live with your wives wisely, honoring the woman as the more fragile vessel and as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7)

“Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)

“Again I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)

. Have we been praying to the Lord about something specific without seeing an answer? If we have followed all of the above faithfully, let us not worry: we are on the Lord’s timetable. But if not, today is a good day to examine where we stand and how we are praying.

May God continue to bless you
and may you continue to have an excellent day in Christ Jesus!
I invite you to stop by the Songbook