what hinders?

I have often blamed busyness for the lack of prayer in my life. So much to do, so little time to do it. But, I’m starting to think that this is probably a smoke screen for other problems that hinder my prayers. I’ve been thinking about 2 passages that the apostle Peter wrote in reference to prayer. The first, found in 1 Peter 3:7, is addressed to husbands. Peter encourages them to be considerate of their wives, treating them with respect as fellow heirs of God’s gracious gift of life. What’s really interesting is the incentive that he gives for living this way: “so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” In the next chapter of I Peter, he encourages believers in general to be “clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (4:7). Peter seems to be saying that the way I treat my wife and the control that I exercise over my mind and my body have a direct impact on my prayers.

What strikes me is that my prayers can clearly be hindered by my actions. What I do, and even the way I think, can interfere with my prayer life. Does this mean that the Lord stops hearing my prayers? I actually think that this question reflects a common misunderstanding of how prayer works.

It is fairly common and natural to assume that prayer starts with us. We have a need that we present to the Lord. Our prayer makes Him aware of our need, or at least emphasizes it in some way that hopefully will move Him toward action. Then, the Lord either answers our prayer or He doesn’t (or as some like to explain it, He always answers our prayer, but His answer may be “no” or “wait”; this response has always bugged me for some reason, though it may be entirely true – maybe it seems like a cop-out).

However, one of my professors explained prayer this way: prayer starts in the will of God. The Lord has something He wants to accomplish. He makes His children aware of this desire. His children cry out to Him for the accomplishment of His will in this matter, and this sets the plan of God in motion.

When we think of prayer in this way, it becomes obvious that prayer, as does everything that relates to our spiritual life, starts and finishes with the gracious plan of God. This means that listening to the Lord, hearing the heart of God in prayer comes before speaking. In fact, our speaking in prayer is simply the overflow of God’s Spirit within us. As Romans 8 teaches, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

If prayer starts with God, then hindrances must effect OUR hearing and not His. And if prayer starts with God, then a worthy question to ask would be: How can we pray if we can’t hear God? If we spend very little time in prayer, there is a good chance that this is because we rarely if ever hear God’s still, small voice. When we hear the Lord, we can’t help but pray. When we encounter God, we can’t help but long to draw near to Him.

Some would say, “you don’t hear God because you don’t spend enough time in prayer.” And although this statement may have some truth to it, I can think of no place in Scripture where our ability to hear God’s voice is linked to the amount of time we spend praying. Rather, as Peter points out, it would seem that our ability to pray (to hear from God and then respond to Him in accordance with His will) is greatly influenced by the way we live.

Something as simple as the way that I treat my wife, or my children, or my neighbor, or my boss may impact the extent to which I am able to hear the Lord today (I Peter 3:7). If I allow my mind to be cluttered by noise from the radio, from the internet, or from the television, I may struggle to hear the Lord today (I Peter 4:7). If I am consumed with worry about a relationship, a health problem, or a financial need, I may find it difficult to hear the Lord today (I Peter 4:7). If I fail to control my eating, my eyes, my words, or my heart attitude, I may be incapable of discerning the Lord’s still, small voice today (1 Peter 4:7).

And in each of these cases, it seems clear that if I do not hear from the Lord, I will find it very difficult to pray. My praying, if I try to pull it off anyway, may prove to be nothing more than an empty list of surface-level needs. It will lack the touch of the Spirit, that energizing authority and insight that characterize the kind of praying that responds to the revealed will of God spoken into my heart, inviting me to participate in the accomplishment of His plan for this day through prayer.

If I find myself unable to pray like this, it seems wise for me to ask myself: What is hindering my prayers today? I know that the Spirit of God is anxious to reveal all hindrances so that they may be eliminated, and so that the channels of communication with the Most High may flow freely once again.