Getting God To Listen

The Psalmist said, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Psalm 66:18

Sometimes it’s just plain hard to pray with a clean heart—like the times my husband and I come to our evening prayer time after we have had a dispute. We have very big needs in our family. There are misunderstandings, financial crises, health emergencies, moral issues to be dealt with and decisions that have to be made. They are the kind of issues that need resolution desperately, if we’re to be effective in God’s kingdom. But we know we can’t pray effectively about them, if we aren’t right with each other. So we try to live in harmony, but it isn’t easy.

Pete and I have a special place on the sofa where we sit at night when we pray. Sometimes we sit farther apart than at others. One night recently we were farther apart. We had argued about something. I honestly can’t remember what.

I sighed. I knew we needed to get things right between us, or God would not release His power for the answers we sought. But . . . what to do. It really wasn’t my fault, or so I thought. It seemed to me Pete ought to be the one to apologize. I waited. He didn’t say anything. So I reluctantly started praying, a sincere prayer to be sure, but powerless. Something wasn’t right, and I knew what it was. No use to pray, if God wasn’t listening. I stopped.

“I’m sorry for coming across so strongly about ____________________. Will you forgive me?” I asked.

He agreed. We talked a little more, clarifying the issue. The wall between us disappeared. The cloud cover shutting out God’s presence evaporated into sunshine. We each prayed with confidence, knowing God heard our prayers.

Lord, help me clean my spiritual house often so the filth doesn’t block our relationship.