May your prayers not be hindered
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2010 · 4 July 2010
“You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
In Peter's first letter, he mentions prayer three times. What is remarkable about these instances is that there is something common to each of them. Let me read them to you and see if you can detect the common thread running through each.
First, Peter has a word for husbands about prayer and their relationship with their wives (3:7): You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Second, in the very next paragraph he speaks to all believers (in v. 8) about being brotherly and kindhearted and humble and (in v. 9) not returning evil for evil but instead giving a blessing.
Then to support these admonitions he quotes Psalm 34:10–12: For, "Let him who means to love life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. And let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Third, in 1 Peter 4:7 he says, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” Now what is the common thread running through those three references to prayer? All three teach us not that praying helps us live right, but that living right helps us pray also.
Now it's true that praying is one of the ways God has appointed to help us live the way we should (cf. Colossians 1:9–10). But Peter's point in every one of these texts is that it's true the other way around: God has appointed a way for us to live which will help us pray.
There are ways to live that hinder prayers and there is a way to live that helps prayer. Let's look at these similarities again and you ask this time: what is Peter telling us about how living helps praying.
The first one in 3:7 tells us that if you want your prayers to be helped and not hindered you have to live with your wife in a certain way. There has to be an effort to understand her so as to know her needs. There has to be a special concern from you of her weaknesses and a process of finding out what she especially needs from you.
He has to recognize that she as his wife is a fellow heir of God’s grace and that she should be honored rather than be belittled or demeaned. When we as husbands live like this with loving understanding, with tender care, and by giving honor, our prayers will not be hindered. If we do not live like this, God will not hear all our prayers.
So concerned is God that Christian husbands live in an understanding and loving way with their wives, that He "interrupts" his prayer relationship with them when they are not living rightly.
No Christian husband should presume to think that any spiritual good will be accomplished by his life without a ministry of prayer. And no husband may expect an effective prayer life unless he lives with his wife "in an understanding way, bestowing honor" on her.
To take the time to develop and maintain a good marriage is God's will; it is serving God; it is a spiritual activity pleasing in his sight. And this is how God has been teaching us to live by being a good example of God’s love towards one another. And God blesses us when we live with our wives that way, which frees our prayers and helps empower our spiritual impact.
Peter goes on in verses 8 and 9 to call all of us, not just husbands, to be sympathetic, and brotherly and kindhearted and humble, and not to return evil for evil but to bless those who are unkind to us.
Then he gives a reason for why we should live like this. It's a quote from Psalm 34 and in verse 12 the reason uses the same kind of argument as in 3:7, namely, prayers are hindered if we don't live this way.
God has a special blessings for the prayers of those who pursue peace and whose lips are pure and who don't use guile (deceit). Verse 12: "For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
God listens to the prayers of those who live like this: keep the tongue from evil, refrain from guile, seek peace, do righteousness. So here again Peter is teaching us how to keep our prayers from being hindered. Does every Christian pray as they should?
There’s a story of a woman who lived in a remote valley in Wales, England. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home. However, after a couple of months, the electric company noticed she didn’t seem to use very much electricity at all.
Thinking there might be a problem with the hookup, they sent a meter reader out to check on the matter. The man came to the door and said, "We’ve just checked your meter and it doesn’t seem that you’re using much electricity. Is there a problem?” “Oh no" she said. "We’re quite satisfied. We turn on the electric lights every night to see how to light our other lamps and then we switch them off again."
Now, why didn’t this woman make more use of her electricity? She believed in electricity. She believed the promises of the electric company when they told her about it. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have her house wired for it. BUT - she didn’t understand the potential of electricity in her home. And so she used its power sparingly.
I suspect there are many people in our church who use prayer very much the same way. They believe in prayer. They know of the promises God has made. They’ve even read and heard stories about answered prayers. But still they use prayer’s power sparingly.
In other words a free, open, real, satisfying life of prayer is not automatic. It doesn't just happen to you while you are passive. If it did, this text would be pointless. Your prayer life in 2010 depends in large part on how you choose to live at home and at work and in your private life.
I believe that the reason that happens (at least for some Christians) is that many don’t understand how prayer works and many people believe it doesn’t really matter whether they pray or not.
They either believe: God is going to do what God is going to do anyway, so why bother!? OR – they regard prayer as a last resort after all of their other efforts have failed. Sort of like a “Hail Mary” pass in football. They throw it up in the air and hope it reaches the desired destination.
They’ll pray a little bit. They’ll throw up occasional appeals…But in their heart of hearts, they don’t view prayer as making that big an impact on the decisions they make every day.
But Daniel didn’t pray that way in the Old Testament, Daniel prayed 3 times every day. He prayed in his room. He prayed in the lions’ den. He prayed for wisdom. He prayed for guidance. He prayed that God would forgive the sins of His people Israel and return them to their home.
And now in Daniel 10, we find Daniel struggling in prayer for 21 days because he’s troubled by a dream he’s had. Many Christians would have trouble praying for 21 days for anything. When was the last time you continually prayed for one thing? Why should we always pray and not give up?
I mean does God not hear our prayer? Is it hard to get His attention? Do we have to keep bothering Him until He throws up His hands in disgust and says "If I don’t grant their request I’ll never get any rest?" No, I don’t think that’s the issue at all.
Listen to Daniel 10:10-12 this evening, because this says something else entirely. Notice it says in verse 12, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”
This isn’t the 1st time an angel has told Daniel this, look at Daniel 9:23, “as soon as you began to pray an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. (because you live a godly life, so you prayer life is not hindered) Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision.”
In other words, when you live godly, every time you pray according to His will, not only does God gladly hear your prayers, in some cases an angel is immediately sent from the throne of God to answer your prayers.
But that still doesn’t answer question: why should we always pray and not give up? The story of Daniel’s prayer (here in chap. 10) gives us at least one reason why we should not give up praying.
Listen again to Daniel 10:12-13, “Then he said to me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia.”
This is one of those rare times God pulls back the curtain and lets us see what’s happening behind the scenes. When Daniel prayed demonic forces responded (the prince of Persia) and angelic warfare broke out.
Listen to what Satan said when he tempted Jesus in Luke 4:5-6, “And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.”
Satan is still in control of this world, in fact Paul calls the devil in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “the god of this world.” He is called the “ruler of this world” in John 14:30 by Jesus Himself. And Satan can do miracles and the whole world is “under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
That is what Satan still does today in using the temptations of this world trying to get you to give more of your time, energy and money for yourself and not for God. And Satan is still tempting you to pursue earthly position, power, prestige and possessions rather than the things of God.
And one of the weapons of war that God gives us in response is living right and prayer! As Hebrews 1:14 tells us, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” When you pray angels are working on your behalf. So Jesus taught that we should “always pray and not give up”
Now, here’s an interesting question…Daniel prayed 21 days. The angel was sent the 1st day he prayed, but didn’t arrive until the 21st day. What might have happened had Daniel given up in his prayers and he quit on the 14th day, or the 15th? Would the angel have arrived with his answer? The Bible doesn’t say, but the implication is – Maybe not!
No… Jesus taught us to always pray and not give up because, when we pray, our prayers are important to God. Listen to Luke 18:1, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Every time you and I pray we are heard by God and He might release more and more power from His throne.
Are you praying for someone in your family to become a Christian? Every prayer you pray puts more and more pressure on that person to listen to God…Do you pray for your friends in their daily struggles? Every prayer you pray imparts to them more and more power from God. Do you have difficulties with someone at work? Every prayer you lift up to God’s throne brings God’s power to bear on difficult people and situations.
Prayer is not a passive act on our part. Prayer is an aggressive, active ministry. You are putting your shoulder to the wheel and you are asking the forces of heaven to work on your behalf. There is power released through prayer.
Now you ask me “why?” Well, to be honest, I don’t understand it all. But then there’s a lot about prayer that is divine mystery. Why does God move in answer to prayer? Why does He require us to pray? I don’t know it all!
But I know the truth of it. Prayer is the simplest form of speech that even infant lips can try; prayer is the most magnificent strains that reach the majesty on high. E.M. Bounds wrote: “God’s objective is committed to men; God commits Himself to praying men who are the vice regents of God; they do His work and carry out His plans”.
George Mueller was known for his powerful prayers. In the course of his ministry to the orphans of England, he never asked for financial assistance from men - only God and he constantly received what was needed to the penny.
Once while on his way to speak in Quebec for an engagement, on the deck of the ship that was carrying him to his destination, he informed the captain that he needed to be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon.
As the captain related the story, he said ‘It is impossible. Do you know how dense this fog is?’ ‘No,’ George replied, ’my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of life. I have never broken an engagement in 57 years; let us go down into the chart room and pray.’
He knelt down and he prayed one of the most simple prayers. When he had finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. ’As you do not believe He will answer, and as I believe He has, there is no need for you whatsoever to pray about it.’
"I looked at him and George Mueller said, ’Captain, I have known my Lord for 57 yrs. and there has never been a single day when I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door and you will find that the fog has gone. I got up and the fog indeed was gone, and on that Saturday afternoon George Mueller kept his promised engagement."
Let us live a righteous life and let us pray continually, God will hear you! And He does respond in His way at His time, but He is never late, Amen?