by R.C. Sproul

Very few prohibitions regarding prayer are found in the Scriptures. In Psalm 66:18, the Psalmist David penned these divinely inspired words: "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." The Hebrew verse could also be translated, "If I had iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have heard."

In either case, David is laying down a condition under which the prayer would be not only ineffective, but unheard. The Hebrew word translated "cherished" is raah, meaning merely "to see." In other words, if I look at my life and see sin and nurture it, my prayers are an exercise in futility.

Does this mean that if sin is present in our lives, God refuses to hear our prayers? No. If this were so, all prayer would be futile. However, if our hearts are hardened in a spirit of impenitence, our prayers are not only futile, but also in mockery of God.

King David in Psalm 66 is reminding himself that there is a time when prayer is a presumptuous, arrogant, detestable, and obnoxious deed perpetrated upon the Almighty. This psalm contains seventeen verses of joy and praise to God for his mighty deeds. And then, suddenly there appears the grim reminder of how the entire story could have been so drastically different. We are alerted to the importance of properly approaching God in prayer. If there is anything worse than not praying, it would be praying in an unworthy manner.

Other Scripture references reflect this attitude. Psalm 109:7 suggests that the prayers of wicked men should be counted as sin. John 9:31 specifically states the Lord does not hear sinners. Proverbs 15:29 says, "The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous." Proverbs 28:9 says that the prayer of the disobedient or rebellious is an "abomination" to the Lord. It is something disgusting or loathsome to him.

James, however, tells us that the prayers of righteous men accomplish much. But we are not righteous in our daily lives, I'm afraid. Yes, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, so that as far as our position before God is concerned, we are righteous; but the practical manifestation of what we are in Christ is sadly inconsistent and woefully inadequate.

Theologians sometimes define a concept by saying what something does not say as well as by what it does say. What the psalmist is not saying is that if he had been guilty of sin, the Lord would not have heard him. The psalmist is not saying that if he had sin in his heart, God would not have heard him.

David was constantly confessing sin in the Psalms. We know that he is not saying that one must be holy in order to pray; otherwise no one would ever pray. In fact, being a sinner is one of the prerequisites for entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus said that he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. Looking again to the Lord's Prayer as a pattern, we note that confession is an integral part of prayer. Without the confession of sin, says 1 John 1:9, there is no forgiveness of sin.

A former mentor of mine, Dr. John Gerstner, tells of an occasion when at one of his meetings, a woman announced to him that she had not sinned for over twenty years. Dr. Gerstner said that he felt sorry for her because that could only mean that she had not prayed in over twenty years, at least not in the way the Lord had told us to pray.

I am not suggesting that the more we sin, the more qualified we are for prayer; that would obviously be a false conclusion. But confessing sin, asking for forgiveness of our "debts," or trespasses, is an integral part of the practice of prayer, as outlined by our Lord himself. In fact, the more godly we are, the more devout we will strive to be and the more painfully aware of our sin we will be. It is much the same as walking toward a mountain. The closer we get to that mountain, the bigger it appears.

Think about the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea, for example. The princess had been gone for some time, and many had tried to lay claim to her throne. To prove true royalty, a scheme was concocted. Many mattresses were stacked on top of one another, with one small pea hidden far down the stack. None of the false princesses had any notion that anything was there, but the true princess could not sleep because of the extreme discomfort the pea gave her. She was extraordinarily sensitive to the presence of the tiny pea.

The lesson for Christians should be clear. When we have that kind of sensitivity to sin, we have royal sensitivity. The closer we are to God, the more the slightest sin will cause us deep sorrow.

We can be sure that being guilty of sin does not disqualify us from the privilege of coming into God's presence. The psalmist is not talking about committing sin, but allowing for it. The Puritans spoke of this concept of allowing for sin. It is not so much the victory over sin we need to look at as it is the battle itself. We are in a battle with sin constantly, and we never emerge unscathed.

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This is part twelve of R.C. Sproul's small book Does Prayer Change Things?. Over the coming weeks we will be posting the complete text of this short but profound and practical book right here at the Ligonier Ministries blog. We have already posted Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.