The Role of Godly Character with Answered Prayer or How to See Your Prayers Get Answered

"The character of the inner life is a condition of effectual praying. As is the life, so will the praying be. An inconsistent life obstructs praying and neutralizes what little praying we may do. Always, it is "the prayer of the righteous man which availeth much." Indeed, one may go further and assert, that it is only the prayer of the righteous which avails anything at all - at any time. To have an eye to God's glory; to be possessed bby an earnest desire to please Him in all our ways; to possess hands busy in His service; to have feet swift to run in the way of His commandments - these give weight and influence and power to prayer, and secure an audience with God. E.M. Bounds

Have you ever said or heard someone say, “I feel like my prayers don’t get past the ceiling”?  In some cases that feeling is probably on to something. And that something is effective and successful praying is always a result of godly and righteous living.

The living God very much wants you to excel in prayer. He wants you to experience the joy of regularly seeing Him answer your prayers. Jesus revealed this when He said, “….ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” John 16:24

Thankfully He is very committed to so working in our lives that we can increasingly walk in this reality. So I want to share some of this theme in Scripture with you trusting that He will give each of us an ever greater passion to be the kind of people whose prayers are regularly answered for the glory of God.

The psalmist spoke of this principle, when he stated, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Psalm 66:18  God actually always hears our prayers because He hears everything. But if we are walking in wickedness and unrighteousness as a way of life, He will not respond to our prayers.

King Solomon said God will not only answer the prayers of those who seek to live godly lives, but He will delight in them,  “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.” Proverbs 15:8

 Sometimes I talk to people who pray but who rarely meditate upon God’s word, much less meditating in it daily as we were meant to do. Here are a couple of passages that help us see the two cannot be separated. Or to put it another way - how meditating on the word of God helps our prayer life: “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” Proverbs 28:9  Why if you ignore what God wants to say to you would He pay attention to what you say to Him?     Jesus put it this way regarding this same principle, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7   The more we listen to Him, the more He listens to us.

The prophet Isaiah throughout his ministry tried to help Israel see the relationship between their life/character and their prayer life,    “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Isaiah 59:2

Even the man who had been blind from birth knew this principle, “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.” John 9:31  Jesus had just healed this man of his blindness and he had more insight into the ways of God than the religious teachers and leaders of that day.

Jesus – as in everything else – is our model and example for how to have an effective world transforming prayer life. God the Father jumped at the chance to answer His prayers and Martha (Lazarus’s sister) knew it, “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”  Listen to Jesus’s confidence of this in one of His prayers to the Father,  “….Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” John 11:22,41,42

Why did God the Father hear Jesus’s prayers?  The writer of Hebrews makes it clear, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” Hebrews 5:7

 James wanted the people he wrote to and cared for to excel in prayer. But they had to be reminded of why some of them were not excelling, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3 

This is what James wanted them to aspire to, “…The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.” James 5:16b, 17 

Peter, (a married man, and one who had to learn how to love his wife in a day and  among a people who had greatly corrupted the God given covenant of marriage), reminded husbands of the relationship their treatment of their wives and their influence with God in prayer had:  “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” I Peter 3:7 

A few verses later Peter reminds his readers of how quick God is to answer the prayers of the righteous, “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER, BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL.” I Peter 3:12 

When Peter in his second epistle said we have everything we could ever need in Christ for life and godliness (see II Peter 1:2,3) he included in that thought or truth what each of us needs to have an effective prayer life. In Christ and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit we can walk in righteousness every day and in every situation (including our marriages men) thereby finding favor with God in our prayer life.

May the Holy Spirit lead each of you my readers in ever greater effectiveness in prayer as you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and walk in the righteousness He provided for you through His blood.