God is Not Asleep!

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV)

The Bible tells us that we do not always know how to pray.  Sometimes our prayers remain unanswered.  Sometimes they are not answered in the way we expected. Most of this is out of our control—God is the one who sees and knows best how to give us what we need.  But we do have control over whether or not we are living a holy life. According to Isaiah 59:1-2, unconfessed sin will keep God from even hearing our prayers.  It’s not God that has the problem, it’s us.  How can we be humble if we are unwilling to confess our sin? How can we seek God’s face if our sin causes Him to hide his face from us?  How can He hear from heaven and heal our land if our sin makes it impossible for him to hear us?

James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”