Prayer, Repentance, and God's Answers

"The truly obedient person not only understands what God wants prayed but how God wants life to be life to be lived.  Such a person has bought into God's plans and purposes.  He or she is tracking with God, appreciating the wisdom of God's commands and living in accord with His ways.  The obedience of such a person flows from a heart filled with love for the Father.  It is a life-gift to God."

Alvin VanderGriend, Praying God's Heart, 78.

"If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination."

Proverbs 28: 9

"Whoever conceals his transgressions will not proper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

Proverbs 28: 13

Here is the rub for most of us.  

We know we should pray.  We know, at least theoretically, God answers prayers.  Yet, most of us do not seem to have that connection and intimacy with God where we get the answers we really want in the way we want them.  Why?

As I have argued in other posts and in my recent evening lecture series (http://www.seattlecrc.org/sermons/sermon/2013-02-17/our-life-of-struggle-part-2---the-video), the primary reason is that we are captured by the values of our world system and by our own flesh to such an extent that we are blinded to spiritual realities.  

In other words, we walk in at least tacit disobedience to God's ways.  Most of us are in active and direct rebellion.  Is there any wonder that we do not get direct and immediate answers to our prayers?

So what can be done about it?  What does it mean to walk in obedience to God's commands?

This is the question that has not been answered well for several centuries within the Western world.  We have made it about behavior modification.  We have made it about performance of duties.  We have made it about what we know.  Honestly, we have made it about anything but repenting of our sins when the Spirit points them out and believing in Jesus as our only hope.  The vast majority of believers have forgotten the full-orbed Gospel.

When we live in light of the gospel, we find ourselves resting in Jesus.  We find ourselves relying upon Him for our righteousness.  We must be humble because confessing our sin and relying upon Jesus by faith crushes our pride.  It feels like death to kill our pride, but it is the pathway of life.

It is also the avenue for experiencing answered prayers.  Learning to repent of our indwelling sin and resting in Christ means buying into God's plans and purposes.  It means living according to God's ways.

The truly good news is that it does not necessarily mean that we have to have an outward obedience that mirrors a monk living in the desert.  It does not necessarily mean that we have to wait until we are old to really be holy (why do I always picture in my head holy people as really old and thus deadened to the passions of youth?).  

While we might be these folks, more likely we will be the average believer in Christ who has learned the truth about their need for Jesus.  As they go about their day at the office, with their children, or on the road, they have learned that maturity is not about mere outward duty or performance.  

No, they have learned it is about actively walking in repentance from our many failings and trusting in Jesus as our only hope.  Such a life becomes a dialogue with the living God.  Such a life has the hope of obedience.  

Notice, it is not having it all together!  It is a life marked by quick repentance, refreshing love from Christ, and a heart transformed by grace.

Such a life is marked by answered prayer.