Pray from a Pure Heart

There is nothing more sad than someone who has learned the "mechanics" of
prayer, you know, the kneeling, the hands raised toward heaven, the eyes
closed and the earnest words and then to have the heavens closed overhead as
though the skies have become brass. Then there comes the pleading and the
crying.

So, we call for the Great Physician and He immediately finds unconfessed
sins lying dormant in the heart of the petitioner. The precious Word from
the Holy Healer reminds us that, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18) Notice that he did not say "cannot" hear
me. He "will not" hear me. So we keep lifting our hands upward in the
correct posture of prayer and discover in Isaiah 1:15, "And when ye spread
forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." Read what the
Prophet Isaiah says in 59:1-15 concerning God's refusal to hear and answer
their prayers. There was a tremendous sin problem in Isaiah's day.

He calls for repentance from the worshipper. "Wash you, make you clean; put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn
to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:16-17)

Here is the promise to the penitent sinner: "The Lord is far from the
wicked: but He hears the prayer of the righteous." (Proverbs 15:29)

Certainly a sinful lifestyle and unconfessed sins and the harboring of
hidden sins are not the only reason for our prayers going unanswered, but if
upon personal examination you discover a problem with sin take it to the
Lord and claim the promise in I John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."