Could God ignore your prayers?

Could God ignore your prayers for others or the country?  Could He even make it His mission to oppose your plans?

All it takes is pride to become God’s adversary. Why? God hates pride. 

The type of pride we’re talking is not that of job well done or of others. No , the pride that separates us from our Heavenly Father is thinking too highly of ourselves above all others.

The danger for Christians is puffed-up thinking because of one’s position in Christ, or spiritual gifts they’ve been blessed with. This is represented in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 (New International Version):

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Note the last verse: “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  This means God will humble any believer who exalts himself and lift up the humble person who has a truthful view of himself.

Few churches teach that God could ignore your prayers and literally war with you because of pride.   Just read James 4:6 (NIV):

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

C.S. Lewis said of pride :

“According to  Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”¹

Why does pride lead “to ever other vice?”  Pride says my needs come first and therefore elevates me above everyone, including people and God.

We are emulating the devil with haughty eyes and a proud heart  (Proverbs 21:4-24).  Instead of reflecting God’s light, the devil darkens us. This is the reason “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16-18).

The opposite of pride is humility, and we must humble ourselves, as Jesus did, to be children of God. This means becoming a servant to others instead of expecting others to serve you. In other words, placing the needs of others above your own.  Isn’t that what Jesus did when He walked the earth?

Humility is confessing your sins and repenting to the LORD, asking God every day to make you more like Jesus , and asking God to answer prayer according to His will.  When we humble ourselves in this manner, we can have confidence God hears our prayers for family, friends, country, enemies and ourselves.

Seek humility as if your life depends on it, because it does.  Do not conform yourself  any longer to this world with exalts pride as virtue. God promises to lift us up in due time when we come to Him with brokenness. He offers only resistance to those arrogant in their own eyes. 

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¹ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) 121-122