Hindrances to our Prayers

Chuckle: Another perk of growing old: "You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room."

Quote: "On my head pour only the sweet waters of serenity. Give me the gift of the untroubled Mind." --Joshua Loth Liebman

". . . you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. If you don't treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard (I Peter 3:7 NLT).

Listen up guys -- and gals too! There are many things that can hinder our prayers: bitterness toward another person, disobeying God, or other unconfessed sins. However, there is one hindrance we may not often think about -- our relationships to one another as husbands and wives.

Today, let's think about husband and wife relationships as they impact our prayer life. Let's begin with this question: Have you ever tried to pray when you were out of sorts or angry with your spouse? If you have, you know it's impossible to do. When you're angry or bitter toward someone, the last thing you feel like doing is praying. Treating a spouse as an equal partner with unconditional love, understanding, and kindness will help to restore your prayer life. Any resentment, anger, or bitterness must be removed before you can effectively pray.

Although our passage is directed to husbands, the same principles apply to wives as well. In essence, Peter tells us that how we treat each other in our marriage relationships will determine the effectiveness of our prayers. Christian marriage partners are to demonstrate their self-giving love for each other with honor and respect, since together they are partners in the grace of life. "Weaker partner" refers to women being physically weaker than men, not weaker in spirit as members of God's kingdom.

With the strains on marriages in our society these days, what better time to evaluate our marriage relationships to determine if our attitudes toward one another are what God would have them to be. God desires that you live out your Christian faith quietly and consistently in your home, so that your family will see Christ in you. The bottom line is that if a husband and wife are not lovingly considerate and respectful of each other, their prayers will not be acceptable to God. This is because a loving relationship and fellowship with God depends on congenial relationships with others, especially our marriage partners -- our most precious gifts from God.

After his wife had died, Thomas Carlyle paid many pathetic tributes to her, whom he had sometimes neglected in life. In his diary there is what has been called the saddest sentence in English literature. Carlyle wrote: "Oh, that I had you yet for five minutes by my side that I might tell you all."

Love, Jerry & Dotse