CHERISHED SINS SILENCE OUR PRAYERS

The idea of communicating with the God seems ludicrous, not to mention intimidating.  Because of this, it makes us wonder does He hear our prayers, the Word tells us "If we have a right relationship with God and are earnestly seeking to follow and honor Him with our lives, we never have to wonder if He is listening to our prayers." Psalm 34:15: “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry.”

So, we cannot live a consistently sinful lifestyle and expect God to hear our prayers. "Psalm 66:18: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”  To cherish sin means to embrace it. To love it, hold on to it, and refuse to give it up. This is vastly different from committing a sin that we regret, confess, and forsake as soon as the Holy Spirit brings it to our attention. God doesn’t expect us to be sinless, but he does call us to deal with our sin as soon as possible.  We cannot willfully live and act against His Word and expect Him to listen to us when we pray.

In the morning, O LORD, You hear our voice; in the morning we lay our requests before You and wait in expectation.”  Father, this is the confidence we have in approaching You: that if we ask anything according to Your will, You will hear and answer us because we are Your children who are called by Your name.” Lord, we understand that You have a great delight in answering prayers that align with Your will.   Lord, let the Holy Spirit utter for us, so our prayers will not be selfish, self-centered, or take us out of Your will so You will keep Your promise.   Father, You are wise and loving, like any good parent, and will not give us things that will harm us or others and for that we are grateful.  Father, right now give us Your strength and courage to release the sins we cherish so You will hear our prayers, in Jesus name, Amen