“Getting Ready For Answered Prayers”

I am sure we are all interested in God hearing and answering the prayers we pray. Over the next few weeks, I want to share with you three simple things about getting our hearts ready for God to answer our prayers…

First of all, we must pray with a pure heart. Psalms 66:18 tells us, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” The word iniquity, simply put, is wickedness or sin. According to the Bible, if there is any unconfessed sin in our lives, then God will not hear our prayer unless it is the prayer of repentance. 

1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confess means to own and acknowledge. In other words, for God to forgive us of our sins and to purify our hearts, we must acknowledge and own what we have done wrong. If you are like me, we have no trouble pointing out everyone else's sin, but admitting and owning our own sin is much harder. This struggle to admit our sin goes back to Genesis 3, when Adam blamed his disobedience on Eve, and Eve blamed hers on the serpent. 

If we want God to hear our prayers, first, we must have a pure heart. We must own up to our wrongdoings and admit to Him that we have sinned. When we do that, I am so thankful He is faithful to forgive!