O ur text for today’s prayer mes sage is found in Psalm 26:2, “Examine me, 0 Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” Here the psalmist invites the Lord to diagnose the actual condition of his heart and soul, the very depths of his being, and to test out, again, his obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit. God is very much concerned about the thought life of the believer. It is possible for our thoughts, our emotions, and our attitudes toward others, to be come a prison of our prayers. I am convinced that the primary target that Satan has chosen today, in his struggle with God, is the mind and emotional life of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If he can defeat us in this area, regardless of the out ward appearance we maintain, he can restrict our effectiveness for the Lord' Jesus Christ and make us a reproach before the world. The psalmist said in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” To put it in 20th century terms: If I, as a believer, permit sin in the area of my thought and emotional life to go unchecked, unconfessed before God, the Lord will not hear me. An attitude of bitterness
will restrict our prayer life and rob us of blessing. I was called as a pastor to a home on one occasion where there was serious illness. In counselling with the wo man who was ill, I listened to a most tragic admission. A woman of culture, outstanding in community leadership and even in the church, facing a very serious and possibly terminal illness necessitating surgery, said “I feel like heaven has been shut up. God hasn’t heard my prayers for months. They do not seem to get farther than the ceiling ■ of the room. I feel like I’ve almost lost faith.” Further counselling uncovered bit terness, rancor, slander, between this lady and another member of her fami ly who was also a Christian. My mind was taken again to the verse, “If I re gard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” The sin of hatred and bitterness had closed in on this one until her prayer had been locked in the prison of her own unyielded heart. May I suggest that though we may have truly been wronged by another; though some grievous sin in reality may have been committed against us, to harbor feelings of bitterness, or (continued on next page)
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