Does God hear our prayers when there is sin in our lives?
Psalm 66:16-20 “Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surly listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld this love from me!”
Proverbs 28:9 “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.”
Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Need I say more?
So what doe we do to make sure that our sins don’t affect our prayer life, which is the vital connection to remaining in Christ? Keep clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord. Regularly approach God in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of the sin that is in your life. As that sin is revealed, don’t just ask for forgiveness, but ask that God grant you the gift of repentance…to turn away from that sin.
We are called to live holy lives. Holiness is not perfection, though. Holiness is dealing rightly with your sin through confession and repentance.
I heard someone ask, “but what about the sinner’s prayer…doesn’t God hear that?” The “sinner’s prayer” refers to a prayer that goes something like, “Dear God, I know that I’m a sinner and that my sins separate me from You. I come to You now confessing and repenting of my sin through by belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I believe that he died on the cross to forgive me of my sins and rose again on the third day. Help me to follow you through this decision. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Of course, there are other versions, but they’re all pretty similar. This “sinner’s prayer” is not found in the Bible and has sort of evolved over the years as a way to help people express their desire to for salvation through prayer. You don’t have to say that prayer to be saved, as some have claimed. The things expressed in the prayer are key, though (recognition of Jesus as God’s Son who died for our sins, confession and repentance, etc.).
Of course God hears the “sinner’s prayer” because it’s a turning to God and away from sin.
Next, we’ll be answering what God has to say about tattoo’s, piercing, and body modifications. You can read all of the questions and answers from this series here.
It is important to note that the psalmist says, “if I had CHERISHED sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened”. It is true that if you refuse to repent of any sin that He will not hear you, but that does not mean that if you struggle with a sin that you desire deliverance from that He will not hear you. Even in our darkness and immaturity, the Lord sees the 'yes' toward Him in our heart and it moves Him. In Song of Solomon, which is also read as an allegory between Jesus and His bride the church, the bridegroom says “you are dark but lovely”. Jesus knows that we are sinful and He doesn't expect us to be perfect because He is perfect for us. Some make the mistake of thinking we serve an angry God who gets upset over every mistake we make, and this is a wrong understanding of who God is. After making a mistake they think that they are too dirty to come before God. This is living in condemnation. The flip point of this mentality is that when we do good for a while, we start to get prideful in our thoughts of “look at how good i've been doing”. But we need the revelation of our righteousness in God. He sees us as righteous! Do you know that if you are serious about pursuing the Lord and giving up transgression, that the instant after you make some kind of mistake you can come before the Lord's presence? That's what He expects us to do! He wants to be involved in everything we do.
Every time we so much as glance at the Lord throughout our day, He is moved with compassion. Everyone hears that Jesus loves them, but many times we just read the words without grasping how real they are. I implore you to spend at least 30 minutes every day seeking the Lord's face, basking in His presence, encountering Him and His love. By doing this you are actually serving God. If you know anything about the Levitical priesthood, God told them to serve Him not only by burning incense and giving burnt offerings and other sacrifices, but merely by “standing before His presence”. It is a simple but powerful way to serve Him. Let's not forget the greatest commandment, “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”, which is more important than “love your neighbor as yourself”. Relationship should always come before serving others, because without a relationship with God your service to others is only humanistic cherity. Do not be one of the one's who receive these terrifying word's from Jesus on judgement day: “I never KNEW you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matt. 7:23.
P.S. Sorry about the long post, but I felt the leading of the Spirit.
God always forgives so no matter how sinful you are, God still hears you. He is fair to everyone, it is just on our own will on what we want to do with our life.