I. The Righteous Man’s Prayers Are Heard
Sometimes when we pray, nothing happens. Why? There are many reasons why our prayers are not seeming to be
effective, and many times when our prayers are NOT effective. God hears the prayers of a righteous man, but ignores
the prayers of a person who is not living the Christian life that they should be living. We get caught up in the “worldly
life”, and lose track of what we are supposed to be doing. The worldly life is anything that is opposite of Spiritual Life.
We are directed to lead a spiritual life once we have accepted Jesus Christ into our lives, and leave the old ways of the
world (worldly life) behind. It is a difficult thing to do, and most of us fail miserably at it when we try to do it by ourselves.
We need the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead the Christian life that is expected of us. Sometimes leading the
Christian life seems like a hard road to travel, and we get lazy.
We need to evaluate our lives to determine if we are going before God with a clean heart, a humble spirit, and a
spiritual cause. More on that later… We need to be living our lives as righteous men, and not as worldly men. Righteous
men are heard and answered when they pray.
I Peter 3:12
12 For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
John 9:31
31Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and
does His will, He hears him.
Proverbs 15:8
8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
James 5:15 - 16
15And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven. 16Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
I John 3:22
22And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in His sight.
II. Living A Worldly Life VS A Spiritual Life
There are only two ways we can live our lives. We can live in the world, or we can live in the Spirit.
A. Worldly Living – we do as the world does. We let worldly people coax us, teach us, and lead us astray
because we want to feel, or be important. We are human, and humans want what we want, when we want it.
The ways of the world become all about “me”.
B. Spiritual Living – we live as the Spirit leads us. We go to God’s Word for guidance, we converse (pray) with
God so that we may better understand His will and His desires for us, and we understand that this life is all
about Him, not “me”.
Imagine This Scenario:
You are the owner of a very large company. You take great pride in your devotion to your employees, and want them to
know that they mean the world to you. When they perform well, you reward them. When they make mistakes, you
correct them. You know that many of your employees are devoted, and faithful to your company, and are willing to do
anything you require of them. They talk to you daily, and you notice that they are reading the company instruction
manual everyday. They are learning all that they can about your company, and are wiling to do whatever it takes to
make your company successful. Sometimes they come to you for guidance, or to get special help for a serious problem
they are facing. You gladly give them guidance, and gladly help them overcome their problems.
Now amongst the devoted employees are some employees who are “middle of the road”. They like your company, and
especially like the benefits that your company has to offer. However, they are only willing to do what you ask so long as
it doesn’t interfere with their personal life, or cause them hardship or discomfort. They are willing to help your company
prosper so long as they get something out of it themselves (rewards).
Now, you have the employees that look at this as just a job. They will only do what they are made to do, and then
complain about it when they do it. They really don’t like your company much, and can’t see that they are benefiting from
your generosity and good will. They would just as soon go to work for someone else if they could make more money.
They have no loyalty for you or your company, and are only looking out for themselves.
Now an employee from each one of these groups approaches you and asks for you to help them with a problem. How
will you respond to each of them?
1. Loyal Employee – You will listen earnestly and with great interest. You will grant their request because they have
found favor in your heart (you really like them and want to help them).
2. Middle Of The Road Employee – You will probably listen to them, but not earnestly. You will be very leery of
helping them out because they have not found favor in your heart. You keep thinking that they are only willing to give of
themselves when it suits them. You take their request into consideration, but will most likely ignore it.
3. “Just A Job” Employee – This guy walks in and you don’t even remember his name. He starts talking to you about
helping him out, and the phone rings. You take the call because ANYTHING is more important than this guy and his
problems. You totally ignore him.
Isn’t it funny - God is just like that. He hears the prayers of a righteous man, but ignores the prayers of an unjust (or
unrighteous) man. Now you start to see the picture of how God deals with our prayers. He looks at our hearts FIRST,
then He decides how to handle the request. If our hearts are true and sincere, and our life is being lived in His ways and
not the ways of the world, then He hears, and delivers. If we are corrupted, He has to think about it. He may or may not
help out. If we are wicked and worldly, He ignores us altogether.
III. Sometimes We Don’t See Or Understand His Answers
Sometimes God answers our pleas for help, but we don’t understand the answer. Most times, it is not the answer we
were looking for, or hoping for so we failed to see it (we weren’t looking for THAT answer because that’s not what we
wanted).
Case in point: You ask God to help you get a better job or win the lottery (or some other get rich quick scheme)
because you have so many bills to pay, and your paychecks just don’t cover them all. You get harassing phone calls
from creditors, and the stress level has taken its toll on you marriage and your family. Your kids all notice that you are
WAY stressed out, and at your wits end. You are pleading with God to deliver you from this torment, and let you have
some peace again. All you want is more money coming in so that you won’t have to worry about “how am I going to pay
my bills”. After all, isn’t this what the Christian life is all about – peace, joy, and harmony?
Well, He answered your prayer, but you didn’t get more money coming in. In fact, you got your hours cut at work. Boy is
that stress level going to go into the stratosphere now, or what!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, if He didn’t give me more income to pay my bills, and He let my hours get cut at work, how exactly did He answer
my prayer?
He sent someone (maybe a friend, a family member, an agency, etc…) to help you understand that you are living above
your means, and that you need to learn how to budget your income and live cheaper. They were even going to show
you how to do it. But… you ignored the person(s) because that wasn’t even in the agenda from the beginning. You
wanted all of your stuff, and to keep living the lifestyle that you are currently living. You just wanted God to give you
more money to do it with.
He knew your real problem, and He knows what is best for each of us. He knew that no matter how much income you
made, you would still live way above your means because you don’t know how to live any different. You want what you
want, when you want it. The money problems that you face will not change simply because you now have more money
coming in. In fact, you will most likely wind up buying more expensive items, and more of them. You will get right back
into the same sad shape that your life was in before the extra money came along. He sent these people to help you
because He wants you to be happy and live in peace. In this instance, you can’t have both.