An Unknown Christian

The Kneeling Christian

Chapter 11
Hindrances to Prayer

THE, poet said, and we often sing —

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to the mercy-seat.

Yes, indeed, they are various. But here again, most of
those hindrances are our own making.

God wants me to pray. The devil does not want me to pray,
and does all he can to hinder me. He knows that we can
accomplish more through our prayers than through our work.
He would rather have us do anything else than pray.

We have already referred to Satan’s opposition to
prayer:

Angels our march oppose
Who still in strength excel
Our secret, sworn, relentless foes,
Countless, invisible.

But we need not fear them, nor heed them, if our eyes are
ever unto the Lord. The holy angels are stronger than
fallen angels, and we can leave the celestial hosts to
guard us. We believe that to them — the hosts of evil —
we owe those wandering thoughts which so often wreck
prayer. We no sooner kneel than we “recollect”
something that should have been done, or something which
had better be seen to at once.

These thoughts come from without, and are surely due to
the promptings of evil spirits. The only cure for wandering
thoughts is to get our minds fixed upon God. Undoubtedly a
man’s worst foe is himself. Prayer is for a child of
God — and one who is living as a child of God should pray.

The great question is: Am I harboring any foes in my
heart? Are there traitors within? God cannot give us His
best spiritual blessings unless we fulfil conditions of
trust, obedience and service. Do we not often ask earnestly
for the highest spiritual gifts, without even any thought
of fulfilling the necessary requirements? Do we not often
ask for blessings we are not fitted to receive? Dare we be
honest with ourselves, alone in the presence of God? Dare
we say sincerely, “Search me, O God, and see –“?
Is there anything in me which is hindering God’s
blessing for me and through me? We discuss the
“problem of prayer”; we are the problem that
needs discussing or dissecting! Prayer is all right! There
is no problem in prayer to the heart which is absolutely
stayed on Christ.

Now, we shall not quote the usual Bible texts which show
how prayer may be frustrated. We merely desire that
everyone should get a glimpse of his own heart. No sin is
too small to hinder prayer, and perhaps to turn the very
prayer itself into sin, if we are not willing to renounce
that sin. The Moslems in West Africa have a saying,
“If there is no purity, there is no prayer; if there
is no prayer, there is no drinking of the water of
heaven.” This truth is so clearly taught in Scripture
that it is amazing that any should try to retain both sin
and prayer. Yet very many do this. Even David cried, long
ages ago, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear” (Psa. lxvi. 18).

And Isaiah says, “Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face
from you” (Isa. lix. 2). Surely we must all agree that
it is sin in us, and not the unwillingness of Christ to
hear, that hinders prayer. As a rule, it is some little
sin, so-called, that mars and spoils the prayer-life. There
may be:

(1) Doubt. Now, unbelief is possibly the greatest
hindrance to prayer. Our Lord said that the Holy Spirit
would convict the world of sin — “of sin because they
believe not on Me” (St. John xvi. 9). We are not
“of the world,” yet is there not much practical
unbelief in many of us? St. James, writing to believers,
says: “Ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that
doubteth . . . let not that man think he shall receive
anything of the Lord” (St. James i. 6-8). Some have
not because they ask not. Others “have not”
because they believe not. Did you think it a little strange
that we spent so much time over adoration and thanksgiving
before we came to the “asking”? But surely, if we
get a glimpse of the glorious majesty of our Lord, and the
wonders of His love and grace, unbelief and doubt will
vanish away as mists before the rising sun? Was this not
the reason that Abraham “staggered not,”
“wavered not through unbelief,” in that he gave
God the glory due unto His name, and was therefore
“fully assured that what He had promised He was able
also to perform”? (Rom. iv. 20, 21). Knowing what we
do of God’s stupendous love, is it not amazing that we
should ever doubt?

(2) Then there is Self — the root of all sin. How selfish
we are prone to be even in our “good works”! How
we hesitate to give up anything which “self”
craves for. Yet we know that a full hand cannot take
Christ’s gifts. Was this why the Savior, in the prayer
He first taught, coupled us with everything else?
“Our” is the first word. “Our Father . . .
give us . . . forgive us . . . deliver us . . .”

Pride prevents prayer, for prayer is a very humbling
thing. How hateful pride must be in the sight of God! It is
God who gives us all things “richly to enjoy.”
“What hast thou that thou didst not receive?”
asks St. Paul (I Cor. iv. 7). Surely, surely we are not
going to let pride, with its hateful, ugly sister,
jealousy, ruin our prayer-life? God cannot do great things
for us whereby we may be glad if they are going to
“turn our heads.” Oh, how foolish we can be!
Sometimes, when we are insistent, God does give us what we
ask, at the expense of our holiness. “He gave them
their request, but sent leanness into their soul”
(Psa. cvi. 15). O God, save us from that — save us from
self! Again, self asserts itself in criticising others. Let
this thought burn itself into your memory — the more like
Jesus Christ a man becomes, the less he judges other
people. It is an infallible test. Those who are always
criticising others have drifted away from Christ. They may
still be His, but have lost His Spirit of love. Beloved
reader, if you have a criticising nature, allow it to
dissect yourself and never your neighbor. You will be able
to give it full scope, and it will never be unemployed! Is
this a harsh remark? Does it betray a tendency to commit
the very sin — for it is sin — it condemns? It would do
so were it spoken to any one individual. But its object is
to pierce armor which is seemingly invulnerable. And no one
who, for one month, has kept his tongue “from picking
and stealing” the reputation of other people will ever
desire to go back again to back-biting. “Love
suffereth long and is kind” (I Cor. xiii. 4). Do we?
Are we?

We are ourselves no better because we have managed to
paint other people in worse colors than ourselves. But,
singularly enough, we enhance our own spiritual joy and our
own living witness for Christ when we refuse to pass on
disparaging information about others, or when we refrain
from “judging” the work or lives of other people.
It may be hard at first, but it soon brings untold joy, and
is rewarded by the love of all around. It is most hard to
keep silent in the face of “modern” heresies. Are
we not told to “contend earnestly for the faith which
was once for all delivered unto the saints”? (Jude 3.)
Sometimes we must speak out — but let it always be in the
spirit of love. “Rather let error live than love
die.”

Even in our private prayers fault-finding of others must
be resolutely avoided. Read once more the story of John
Hyde praying for the “cold brother.” Believe me,
a criticising spirit destroys holiness of life more easily
than anything else, because it is such an eminently
respectable sin, and makes such easy victims of us. We need
scarcely add that when a believer is filled with the Spirit
of Christ.– who is Love — he will never tell others of
the unchristian behavior he may discern in his friends.
“He was most rude to me”; “He is too
conceited”; “I can’t stand that man”;
and such-like remarks are surely unkind, unnecessary, and
often untrue.

Our dear Lord suffered the contradiction of sinners
against Himself, but He never complained or published
abroad the news to others. Why should we do so? Self must
be dethroned if Christ is to reign supreme. There must be
no idols in the heart. Do you remember what God said of
some leaders of religion? “These men have taken their
idols into their heart . . . ; should I be inquired of at
all by them?” (Ezek. xiv. 3.)

When our aim is solely the glory of God, then God can
answer our prayers. Christ Himself rather than His gifts
should be our desire. “Delight thyself in the Lord and
He shall give thee the petitions of thine heart” (Psa.
xxxvii. 4, R.V., marg.).

“Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have
boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of
him, because we keep his commandments and do the things
that are pleasing in his sight” (I John iii. 21, 22).

It is as true today as in the early days of Christianity
that men ask, and receive not, because they ask amiss that
they may spend it on their pleasures –.i.e., self (James
iv. 3).

(3) Unlove in the heart is possibly the greatest hindrance
to prayer. A loving spirit is a condition of believing
prayer. We cannot be wrong with man and right with God. The
spirit of prayer is essentially the spirit of love.
Intercession is simply love at prayer.

He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the great God Who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

Dare we hate or dislike those whom God loves? If we do,
can we really possess the Spirit of Christ? We really must
face these elementary facts in our faith if prayer is to be
anything more than a mere form. Our Lord not only says,
“And pray for those that persecute you; that ye may be
sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. v. 44,
45).

We venture to think that large numbers of so-called
Christians have never faced this question. To hear how many
Christian workers — and prominent ones, too — speak of
others from whom they disagree, one must charitably suppose
they have never heard that command of our Lord!

Our daily life in the world is the best indication of our
power in prayer. God deals with my prayers not according to
the spirit and tone which I exhibit when I am praying in
public or private, but according to the spirit I show in my
daily life.

Hot-tempered people can make only frigid prayers. If we do
not obey our Lord’s command and love one another, our
prayers are well-nigh worthless. If we harbor an
unforgiving spirit it is almost wasted time to pray. Yet a
prominent Dean of one of our cathedrals was recently
reported to have said that there are some people we can
never forgive! If so, we trust that he uses an abridged
form of the Lord’s prayer. Christ taught us to say
“Forgive us . . . as we forgive.” And He goes
farther than this. He declares, “If ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive
your trespasses” (Matt. vi. 15). May we ever exhibit
the Spirit of Christ, and not forfeit our own much-needed
forgiveness. How many of our readers who have not the
slightest intention of forgiving their enemies, or even
their offending friends, repeated the Lord’s prayer
today?

Many Christians have never given prayer a fair chance. It
is not through conscious insincerity, but from want of
thought. The blame for it really rests upon those of us who
preach and teach. We are prone to teach doctrines rather
than doings. Most men desire to do what is right, but they
regard the big things rather than the little failings in
the life of love.

Our Lord goes so far as to say that even our gifts are not
to be presented to God if we remember that our brother
“hath ought against us” (Matt. v. 23). If He will
not accept our gifts, is it likely He will answer our
prayers? It was when Job ceased contending with his enemies
(whom the Bible calls his “friends”) that the
Lord “turned his captivity” and gave him twice as
much as he had before (Job xlii. 10).

How slow we are — how unwilling we are — to see that our
lives hinder our prayers! And how unwilling we are to act
on love-lines. Yes, we desire to “win” men. Our
Lord shows us one way. Don’t publish abroad his
wrongdoings. Speak to him alone, and “thou hast gained
thy brother” (Matt. xviii. 15). Most of us have rather
pained our brothers!

Even the home-life may hinder the prayer-life. See what
Peter says about how we should so live in the home that our
“prayers be not hindered” (I Peter iii. 1-10). We
would venture to urge every reader to ask God to search his
heart once again and to show him if there is “any root
of bitterness” towards anyone. We all desire to do
what is pleasing to God. It would be an immense gain to our
spiritual life if we would resolve not to attempt to pray
until we had done all in our power to make peace and
harmony between ourselves and any with whom we have
quarreled. Until we do this as far as lies in our power,
our prayers are just wasted breath. Unkindly feelings
towards another hinder God from helping us in the way He
desires.

A loving life is an essential condition of believing
prayer. God challenges us again, today, to become fit
persons to receive His superabundant blessings. Many of us
have to decide whether we will choose a bitter, unforgiving
spirit, or the tender mercies and loving-kindness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not amazing that any man can halt
between two opinions with such a choice in the balance? For
bitterness harms the bitter more than anyone else.

“Whensoever ye stand praying, forgive if ye have
ought against anyone; that your Father also, who is in
heaven, may forgive you” (Mark xi. 25). So said the
blessed Master. Must we not then either forgive, or cease
trying to pray? What shall it profit a man if he gain all
his time to pretend to pray, if he harbors unlove in his
heart to prevent real prayer? How the devil laughs at us
because we do not see this truth!

We have God’s word for it that eloquence, knowledge,
faith, liberality, and even martyrdom profit a man nothing
— get hold of it — nothing, unless his heart is filled
with love (I Cor. xiii.). “Therefore give us
love.”

(4) Refusal to do our part may hinder God answering our
prayers. Love calls forth compassion and service at the
sight of sin and suffering, both here and overseas. Just as
St. Paul’s heart was “stirred” —
“provoked” — within him as he beheld the city
full of idols (Acts xvii. 16). We cannot be sincere when we
pray “Thy kingdom come” unless we are doing what
we can to hasten the coming of that kingdom — by our
gifts, our prayers and our service.

We cannot be quite sincere in praying for the conversion
of the ungodly unless we are willing to speak a word, or
write a letter, or make some attempt to bring him under the
influence of the Gospel. Before one of Moody’s great
missions he was present at a meeting for prayer asking for
God’s blessing. Several wealthy men were there. One
began to pray that God would send sufficient funds to
defray the expenses. Moody at once stopped him. “We
need not trouble God about that,” he said quietly,
“we are able to answer that prayer!”

(5) Praying only in secret may be a hindrance. Children of
a family should not always meet their father separately. It
is remarkable how often our Lord refers to united prayer —
“agreed” prayer. “When ye pray, say, Our
Father”; “If two of you shall agree on earth as
touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for
them. . . . For where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt.
xviii. 19, 20).

We feel sure that the weakness in the spiritual life of
many churches is to be traced to an inefficient
prayer-meeting, or the absence of meetings for prayer.
Daily matins and evensong, even when reverent and without
the unseemly haste which is so often associated with them,
cannot take the place of less formal gatherings for prayer,
in which everyone may take part. Can we not make the weekly
prayer-meeting a live thing and a living force?

(6) raise is as important as prayer. We must enter into
His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with
praise, and give thanks unto Him and bless His name (Ps. c.
4). At one time in his life Praying Hyde was led to ask for
four souls a day to be brought into the fold by his
ministry. If on any day the number fell short of this,
there would be such a weight on his heart that it was
positively painful, and he could neither eat nor sleep.
Then. in prayer he would ask the Lord to show him what was
the obstacle in himself. He invariably found that it was
the want of praise in his life. He would confess his
sinfulness and pray for a spirit of praise. He said that as
he praised God seeking souls would come to him. We do not
imply that we, too, should limit God to definite numbers or
ways of working; but we do cry: “Rejoice! Praise God
with heart and mind and soul.”

It is not by accident that we are so often bidden to
“rejoice in the Lord.” God does not want
miserable children; and none of His children has cause for
misery. St. Paul, the most persecuted of men, was a man of
song. Hymns of praise came from his lips in prison and out
of prison: day and night he praised His Savior. The very
order of his exhortations is significant. “Rejoice
evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you” (I
Thess. v. 16-18).

The will of God. Get that thought into your mind. It is
not an optional thing.

REJOICE: PRAY: GIVE THANKS

That is the order, according to the will of God — for
you, and for me. Nothing so pleases God as our praises —
and nothing so blesses the man who prays as the praises he
offers! “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he
shall give thee the petitions of thine heart” (Ps.
xxxvii. 4, R.V., marg.).

A missionary who had received very bad news from home, was
utterly cast down. Prayer availed nothing to relieve the
darkness of his soul. He went to see another missionary, no
doubt seeking comfort. There on the wall was a motto-card:
“Try Thanksgiving!” He did; and in a moment every
shadow was gone, never to return.

Do we praise enough to get our prayers answered? If we
truly trust Him, we shall always praise Him. For

God nothing does nor suffers to be done
But thou would’st do thyself
Could’st thou but see
The end of all events as well as He.

One who once overheard Luther praying said, “Gracious
God! What spirit and what faith is there in his
expressions! He petitions God with as much reverence as if
he were in the Divine presence, and yet with as firm a hope
and confidence as he would address a father or a
friend.” That child of God seemed quite unconscious
that “hindrances to prayer” existed!

After all that has been said, we see that everything can
be summed up under one head. All hindrance to prayer arises
from ignorance of the teaching of God’s Holy Word on
the life of holiness He has planned for all His children,
or from an unwillingness to consecrate ourselves fully to
Him.

When we can truthfully say to our Father, “All that I
am and have is thine,” then He can say to us,
“All that is mine is thine.”