Thoughts on 1 Peter - Day 14

                            1 Peter 3:7-12

  ... so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
⁸ Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. ⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. ¹⁰ For,

“Whoever would love life
    and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
    and their lips from deceitful speech.
¹¹ They must turn from evil and do good;
    they must seek peace and pursue it.
¹² For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
    and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

      How is your prayer life?  You want to give a talk and have people get convicted?  Ask that question. You don't even need the Holy Spirit to convict. I shouldn't jest like that because without the Holy Spirit to convict all you get is guilt. Here in the next passage, Peter is going to talk about prayer and we will see its importance and some guidance on how to have effectual prayer.

      The first time we see prayer mentioned is at the end of the previous passage.  Peter says to husbands, if you don't have your marriage in order your prayers are going to be hindered. I can testify that when Karen and I are not right, I can't do anything effectively because all I can think about is getting right with her. Peter is saying that in order to have focused thoughts on God your relationships on Earth must be in line. This is not only because of distraction reasons but the psalmist says that if we regard iniquity in our heart the Lord does not hear us. In the gospels Jesus says if you are going to the altar to offer sacrifices and realize that a relationship isn't right, you are to go back and reconcile that issue and then go offer the sacrifice. So not only does a distracted mind inhibit prayers but also a sinful heart harboring unconfessed sin. But wait there's more. Marriage, as we just said in the last blog reveals selfishness and the degree to which we aren't getting along is revealing the degree to which we are being run by the flesh. How can we expect to see prayers answered if we are being run by the flesh?

   We tend to look at a godly marriage as the ultimate, representing an accurate picture of Christ and the church, his bride, to a lost world. As important as that is,  Peter is saying that your prayer life,  your intimacy with Christ supercedes that. He says, you better have a good marriage or else you won't be able to pray. You want to know how important prayer is - there you have it.

    Lastly, Peter gives us a laundry list of character traits and behaviors necessary for effective prayer which leads to good days and loving life. These are to be compassionate, humble, loving, not repaying evil with evil but overcoming it with good, keeping the tongue from evil and deceitful speech, turning from evil and doing good,  and seeking peace and pursuing it. In my younger Christian days I would have written out that list and if I really wanted something bad, I would have worked on all those area one by one in order to have my prayer answered the way I wanted. After studying Galatians, I am pretty sure God is not about lists. He is about identifying what is behind that list and once again it is about killing the flesh-dying to self. The degree to which we are doing that is the degree to which God's righteousness can shine through and the degree to which we can have effective communication with Him- the ultimate goal in life.

Lord, I want to know You. I want to think your thoughts and hear your voice.  I want to be concerned about the things that concern You. Please don't let anything get in the way of this.  Amen