Why prayers don't work without repentance

In the wake of the horrible San Bernandino attack, one hashtag which trended for a bit was that prayers don't work. This post will explain why some prayers don't work.

It all has to do with repentance, and it's pretty simple.

We Have A Friend in God

God is personal, He desires a personal relationship with each of us. First John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God is always willing to forgive us, He just wants us to come to him and accept we need forgiveness for our sins. That word cleanse helps to explain why repentance is needed by our nation, and why if we harbor sin in our hearts God won't hear our prayers - because truly turning from our sins lets Him cleanse our hearts.

Let's use a personal example. Most of us have had arguments with friends but remain friends. Let's say  one friend asks a favor of another, say helping them to move. The one says okay but then brushes it off and does something they think is more important but put in reality could have been easily put off, and doesn't seem to care they broke a promise.

Now, they remain friends but there would be something between them. The one promises to do something and doesn't care that they really inconvenience the other. If they had wanted to do something different, it would have been easier to just say no I can't do it, although the words I can't bring into question whether its true. For instance, if we're talking something like babysitting and the child is old enough, the kid could come along and entertain the moving person's baby or help to sort small things. But, "Sorry I can't this weekend" usually is just accepted among friends.

Anyway, so if the one that had to move is asked by the other friend to help them, that friend who moved is likely to say, hey, "ait a minute dude, I had to move and you promised to help and then didn't and didn't say why or anything". Ignoring the different layers of things (the reason, difficulty of move, etc.), in general the other should just have to apologize and - being friends - it would be forgiven and things would be back to normal.

The Part Repentance Plays in Prayer

It's the same way with God and our prayers. The first prayer He'll hear and answer "yes" to the person praying it is the sinner's prayer of repentance, which establishes that relationship. The person realizes they're a sinner in need of a Saviour. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."(Rom.10:13) That is, calling on Him to save them from their sins and come into their heart and make them new inside, as clearly shown from the context of the previous verses.(This is why not all who cry "Lord, Lord" are saved, they say it with their mouths but don't trust Him to save them with their hearts.)

You may ask, "What about that prayer I prayed that He answered before I knew Jesus?" There could have been someone else praying, or he did it(saved you from ana ccident, helped you do something, etc.) because he knew it would bring you to Him. John 16:7-12 shows the Holy Spirit is at work even among thsoe who don't know Jesus, after all. There are also Muslims who have had dreams where Jesus appears, often after they pray asking God to reveal Himself to them. This is proved by Hebrews 11:6, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.It usually won't happen where the Word of God is readily available, but yours truly, when global Media Outreach, had a chat experiment, had a person from a Muslim country say he'd just awakened from a dream and needed to receive Christ. Likely, that person had been to a site like Jesus2020.com and had been pondering it.

Anyway, so when someone has trusted Christ as Saviour and invited Him into their heart through the Holy Spirit, they have a relationship with God. Jesus call His disciples "Friends," just like God called Abraham "Friend." And, let's say - like that example with the friends above - that person harbors sin in their heart. Maybe it's hatred of some group, or trying to push God away, or lusting after someone while trying to pray.

All of a sudden, God's like that guy who was moving and his friend wouldn't help him. When he or she goes to ask god for something in prayer, It's like God saying, "Dude, you've got something in your heart/life that's come between us. We can't be close again till you get rid of that." We're still saved, but that relationship is strained, just that like guy who wouldn't help his friend move after promising to, then asks a favor of the friend who moved.

Of course, we're all sinners in need of a Saviour, and we will be till we die because of that old, sinful flesh/Adamic nature. We don't have to confess every sin each time we pray - if we did, those quick emergency prayers for wisdom or the words to say to someone or whatever else wouldn't be possible. God *wants* to hear and answer those prayers, just like any others. He knows each situation, and understands sometimes there are times you have to just shoot up a prayer.

Say, for instance, someone told you they just found they have cancer and you pray for the right thing to say. You don't have time to ask God to forgive you for snapping at someone foolishly and not apologizing to them. (Of course, if you let that anger fester, it can turn into sin in another way - you won't be trying to think of how to offer words of encouragement because you're too busy fuming about the other problem.) However, if you're kneeling in prayer over a bunch of things, and plan to pray for several minutes, that's when you need to let the Spirit remind you to repent of that foolish fury and, if needed, apologize to the person you offended.

Application To San Bernandino, etc.

So, that brings us back to San Bernandino and prayers in general for our country.

Remember that prayer involves a lot of spiritual warfare.I've posted about the whole armor of God as just one of a number of messages on that warfare.The devil doesn't wnt people to get saved - instead he wants people to be as violent and mean as they can and to take as many people with him. So, what's his strategy going to be with the saved world, those who can't be taken from jesus because He is able to keep us from falling(Jude 24) and nobody can pluck us out of His hand(John 10:28-30) and nothing can seperate us from the love of God(Rom.8:36-39)?

The devil's strategy, since he can't have our souls, is to block our prayers. Because prayer changes thigns, but if he blocks our prayers, he can have his way a lot more.

And, that's just what he's done. To prevent evil like San Bernandino, it takes lots of prayer warriors calling for these thigns to be exposed and calling on the Lord to protect us and to revive our nation. But, our country has a problem - we have turned so far away from God that national repentance is necessary. Only then will God heal the land - and, even if 2 Chronicles 7:14 is only about Israel, Jeremiah 18:5-10 contains pretty much the same promise to Gentile nations.

Mucch has been written in this blog before about praying not just for forgiveness for the last 40 years, but for the last 400. Indeed, we also must pray for God to change our hearts - we need to turn from our wicked ways, not just say "I'm sorry" but just keep doing them.

Thankfully, He understands how hard it is. He knows we are just flesh, and that we need His heelp to cleanse this nation. He is still longsuffering toward us, and just waiting for us to turn our hearts toward Him; then, he can be the one to point us int he right direction.

the next post - as long as nothing else intervenes - will discuss one place they are trying to have revival, and also a warning of how we need to pray the devil not counterfeit it. For now, however, just remember that God wants to heal our land. he is always waiting with open arms, just like the father of the Prodigal Son.

The question is, are we willing to answer the call. Not so we can just change overnight, but so the Lord can change hearts once we trust Him to forgive and save us. Only then will He pour out His Holy Spirit and convict people of sin and bring more people to Him and give them that perfect peace, love, comfort, wisdom, etc. he offers to all who trust Him.

it doesn't have to be millions at once praying. But, it does take consistent prayer, with people praying like peter and John in Acts 4-5 that the Lord would intervene and move in the nation despite what leaders want, because we ought to obey God rather than men. And, when you look at the fruits of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23) you see that against such there is no law.

So, let us go tot he Lord in prayer and seek His protection regardless of what leaders want. They have tried to remove Jesus from public discourse. Let us pray and call on the Lord to return, not jsut by saying Merry Christmas, but by actively seeking the Lord and turning from our sins ourselves, being the kind, peaceful, tenderhearted, temperate(self-controlled), meek(power under control), wise, joyful, etc. people he calls us to be. Not by our own strength, but by Him working in us.

Only then can we - in the Lord's strength - bring about change and end the oppression in this country.