That Your Prayers Be Not Hindered

Unbelievers know Who God is and they don't want to submit to Him, so they attack those who belong to Him. A sort of backward way of getting at God is to harm His children.

 

When unbelievers can't find a reason to hate the believer, they will think one up, that seems plausible based on pettiness, to discredit them. We can expect this to happen more as we come to the end of this church age.

 

We see this very thing in the twisted mind of the Muslim community. They hate Christians and Jews without cause. Christians and Jews have done nothing to them that would warrant beheadings. Satan is working all over the world now to spread discord among families even among believers in Christ.

 

Matthew 10:22 ""You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved."

 

This verse and others suggest to me that emotional and even physical persecution will be common place for the staunch believer. Those who endure through it will be those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they will endure to the end, the proof that they belong to Christ.

Philippians 4:7 "7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

We have been promised that Christ in us would guard our heart, we need not worry if we are going to be protected from the assaults of ungodly people. We have no need to defend ourselves from spiritual attacks.

Ephesians 6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

We must be confessing our sins to keep close accounts that our prayers are not hindered.

 

1 Peter 3:7 "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with your wives with understanding, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered."

James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. "

Let's be thankful that we don't have to defend ourselves, that God will work on our behalf. Let us seek His face for the answers to everything we encounter. If we know His principles we will know how to respond, the Holy Spirit will speak through us. When He speaks we never have to regret what comes from our mouth.

Not Forgetting God's Precepts

Comforting words from the Lord!!! All those who love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind will identify with this blessed psalm from God to His children.

Psalm 119:137-144
"137 Righteous are You, O Lord, And upright are Your judgments.
138 You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness
And exceeding faithfulness.
139 My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
140 Your word is very pure, Therefore Your servant loves it.
141  I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
143 Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.
144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live."

The Law Convicts of Sin

The ten commandments were given to convict the unbeliever of sin. After we are born again, God's law lives in us, we don't have to try or work to keep them, they come naturally to us. I don't have to try not to steal, I have no desire to, in fact it is repulsive to me, if someone suggested that I steal, I would refuse, not because I am trying hard to obey, but because it is not in my new nature to do so.

 

If someone is trying real hard to keep the commandments, perhaps they... are still in the flesh, not born again. Many people will work to be good but it doesn't make them saved. We are born again by trusting what Christ did on the cross for us, then He comes to live in us, He is the Law Giver, the Author of the Law.

 

Galatians 3:19 "Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made."

1 Timothy 1:9 "realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers"

Often unbelievers are convicted by us, because they sense the Holy Spirit living in us, the very essence of the Law. The Law convicts of sin.