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Hurdles and Hindrances to Answered Prayer

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A church or an individual is only as powerful as its prayer life. Prayer is the DNA of every Christian. Our heavenly father has given us the greatest opportunity and privilege to commune with Him through our prayers and fellowship. Our Enemy knows the importance of prayers. So, it’s our adversary business to see that our prayers are ineffective. The more ineffective our prayers are the more our adversary holds on us is entrenched and our testimony weakened.

Hurdles are mainly obstacles or difficulties that make our prayers unanswered. These hurdles act as barriers to be surmounted for our prayers to be answered.

  • PRAYER IS MORE OF PRACTICE THAN LEARNING. The best approach to prayer is to pray. Prayer is mostly effective if it’s borne out from faith in God. It is a false idea to belief that if you know about prayer it means we have prayed. Becoming an expert in the knowledge of prayer is different from being a master in the practice of praying. It’s like buying a cookbook but never cooking anything from it.
  • MENTAL ASSENT RATHER THAN ACTION. Mental assent agrees with God but does not believe in God. A true believer is a doer of the word not hearers only (James 1:23). Mental assent is like sense knowledge. It says “I’LL believe it when I see it”. We walk by faith not by sight. Faith believes before we see the manifestation of our prayers. James 1:22 tells us that if we think just listening to the word of God is enough, we are deceived. We must believe the word and act on it.
  • INTERNALISING THE WORD. Another major hurdle is hearing the word but not absorbing it into one’s life. We have to absorb the word by meditation, assimilation and appropriation. When we don’t absorb the word’ Satan steals it away (Matt. 13:19) so that it cannot have an impact on our relationship with God. The word of God in our life needs to be established and entrenched. Jesus always ended His teaching with this saying “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!) There is a physical hearing and there is a spiritual hearing. We also need eyes of faith to see, mind renewal, receptive hearts and spirits (1 Cor. 2: 9- 10)
  • HOPING RATHER THAN HAVING FAITH. Faith is all we need to appropriate (received) God’s blessings for us. In faith our prayers are answered. Hope put our blessings in the future. It takes faith to bring it to the now. (Heb. 11.1). Our prayers with faith please and move God to move our mountains (Heb. 11: 6; Mark 11: 22-24).
  • PRAYING IN FAITH. It means when we pray we should have faith in the power and the word of God. God word is inherently powerful (Heb. 4: 12). God upholds all things by the word of his power (Heb. 1: 3). All things consist of His power. Have faith in God means having God kind of faith.
  • CARES OF THE WORLD/LAZINESS. Matthew 13:22 Jesus said, “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it fruitful”. We can become complacent with our knowledge of the word and neglect to nurture it. Matthew 3: 10 says : “The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into fire”

HINDRANCES. Hindrances are anything that will hinder or sabotage our prayers from being answered. Hindrances are different from hurdles because they deal with us emotionally and spiritually. These hindrances need to be cleared out for our prayers to be answered. These hindrances affect our fellowship and intimacy with God.

  • SIN. The impact of sin our lives affect our relationship and prayer live.(James 1:21-22; Isaiah 66:18; Psalm 66:18; 1 John 3:22; I John 2:1; 2 Chron. 7:14)
  • This is a significant hindrance for us to overcome because it often keeps us from believing we can approach God in prayer. Fear hinders us from having freedom and confidence when we pray. (See 1 John 4: 14 and 2 Tim. 1:7)
  • GUILT. Guilt is related to the fear of not being forgiven. For some they live in constant sense of condemnation. (Rom. 8:1-2; Heb. 8:12, 10:14; 16-22; Isaiah 43:25)
  • FEELING OF INFERIORITY. Some are hindered in prayer because they don’t believe they are worthy enough to receive an answer. Low opinion of ourselves affects our spiritual inheritance and appropriation. (See Eph. 1:3-11; Heb. 4:16). We have to know who we are (Heb. 1:7 &14) when we pray as God’s children (we are no servants) God’s angels are activated to answer our prayers, according to the word.
  • DOUBT. James 1: 5-8. Doubts are lack of trust and believe when we pray. We should trust the faithfulness, character, love and kindness of our God.
  • WRONG MOTIVES. If our motives are wrong, our prayers will be hindered. James 4: 3 talks about us asking amiss because our motives are wrong.
  • BITTERNESS. Bitterness is hidden hatred. It means we are holding something against someone and not releasing that person through forgiveness. Bitterness is hideous and a dangerous sin (Heb. 12:15; Eph. 4:31-32 )
  • UNFORGIVENESS. Unforgiveness like bitterness will block our relationship with God and other people. Lack of forgiveness does not reflect the character of God. (Mark 11:25-26)
  • BROKEN FAMILY RELATIONSHIP. This will hinder our prayers. We are enjoin to live at peace with everyone if possible (Rom. 12:17-18) See also 1Peter 3: 7 and Matt. 5: 23-24.
  • IDOLS. God will not answer our prayers if we have idols in our heart (Ezek. 14:3). There are a lot of things that can be idol. These things take the place of God in our lives .An Idols is anything we give higher priority than God. Examples cable TV, Wife, children, boyfriend or girlfriend, reputation, etc. God displacement in our lives can be gradual. (See Duet. 6:5)
  • Ungenerous heart can hinder our prayers. Prov. 21: 13 says “ if a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (See Prov. 11: 25; 22: 9; Mal. 3: 10)

Finally, we need to throw of our hindrances. Hebrews 12: 1 ask us to lay aside (throw off) everything that hinders and sins that so easily entangles (beset) and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Through the grace of God in our lives we can removed these hindrances and makes our prayer effective and effectual to the glory of God, Amen.