Our parent ministry – Real Manna Ministries – has some teaching on praying aright. We wrote it a couple of years ago and considered the benefits thereof. This time, we want to consider the opposite quantity. Consequently, we now write on the negative effects of praying amiss.
James, the brother of Jesus, floated the notion of praying amiss. His thesis is that it is the reason that our prayers go unanswered.
Primary Negative Effects Of Praying Amiss
According to James, the first of the negative effects of praying amiss is a hedonistic attitude. When you are self-absorbed and you carry that into prayer, that is praying amiss.
Let us assume that once in a while, God does answer such selfish prayers. You receive the things for which you ask. What happens then? You have lots of stuff. But lots of material wealth make it difficult to detach from the earth. You become very carnal, which is simply a fancy word for being an unbeliever.
You pray but pray amiss. As time goes on, you become more and more carnal. Your heart is increasingly where your treasure is – in stuff. Thus, one of the negative effects of praying amiss is that you are no longer a Christian. And yet you believe that you are praying. How ironic!
And because no matter how much stuff you have, someone is bound to have more, you become envious. Envy, as you probably know, is one of the evil works of the flesh. Terrible, you say. Yes, particularly as such works preclude one from entering into Heaven.
Other Ways Of Praying Amiss
But praying selfishly is not the only way you pray amiss. Jesus gave us some pointers to praying amiss. He warned us against repetitive words, saying that that is what heathens aka unbelievers do. It is repugnant to God and the reason is not far to seek.
Unbelievers think that they will be heard for their many words. They are not placing their faith in the One to whom they are praying. Their faith has been transferred to their many words, their own works or achievements.
Listen to such people and you can immediately identify them. They start every sentence with “I prayed all night” or “I prayed for seventeen hours.” Just like the man in Luke 18.
He started with, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ The Bible makes it clear that he was not praying to God but with himself. How tragic.
From this man’s story alone, you see one of the negatives effects of praying amiss as arrogance. Pride goes before a fall, as you know. In any case, God resists the proud. And you most certainly want God to resist you. For a fuller consideration of how pride works against you, click here.
Other Negative Effects Of Praying Amiss
You just have to wonder, when you pray for seventeen hours, when does God have time to tell you anything? Steve Harvey cracked me up the other day on his show. A young man was introducing himself to the parents of a girl he wanted to ask out. After he was done, Steve told him: “you have to give them time to talk.”
Similarly, you have to give God time to talk to you. Which is why praying for a long time precludes you from hearing from God. A lot of good Christians agonize because they want to learn how to hear from God. One great way, when we come to the place of prayer, is to stop running our mouths. There is no doubt that an inability to hear God is one of the negative effects of praying amiss.
Loud Prayers Indicate A Life Of Sin
Some of us are in such a hurry for God to hear us that we raise our voices. We yell at the God of Heaven and of earth. What we fail to realize is that it is a sign of unconfessed sin lurking in our lives. God says in so many words that He is not deaf.
However, if you feel the need to raise your voice, it means that there is a barrier between you and God. By yelling, you are trying to overcome that barrier. God identifies the barrier as sin. It implies that you are aware of sin in your life and yet you refuse to confess it and ask for forgiveness. Instead, you resort to yelling.
Such unconfessed sin is one of the negative effects of praying amiss. If rather than yelling at God, you know enough to break down the barrier by confessing your sin, you identify with God. You align with Him and remove one of the major negative effects of praying amiss.
Subscribe To Receive Our Weekly Post Directly In Your Inbox
Societal Negative Effects Of Praying Amiss
Later in the same passage in Isaiah 59, you find some additional negative effects listed. In other words, if instead of praying aright and asking for forgiveness, those are the issues you can expect. They can affect you personally or through societal injustice. They represent some of the negative effects of praying amiss. Don’t yell at God; simply ask for help and forgiveness. Otherwise, prepare to experience one or more of the issues on this list.
The listing is in the middle portion of Isaiah 59. Justice is far from us. We look for light, but there is darkness! And we grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes. Next, we stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places. We look for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us.
Ask For help to Avoid The Negative Effects Of Praying Amiss
How many of us do not wish that there was more justice all around? Its absence is one of these negative effects of praying amiss. Or how often have we wished we could see and understand situations more clearly? No, we shall not take a poll. all we can say is that the answer is “too often.” And what is the solution? Pray aright.
But because we are human, with a propensity for fouling things up, we usually pray amiss. That is unless we have help. The disciples of Jesus knew this weakness and therefore asked for help. Teach us to pray, they asked. He taught them. A short and sweet model prayer. Unfortunately, when it comes to us, we elongate our prayers.
Like those disciples, we need to ask for help. Or else, we shall go on paying amiss. And we shall go on experiencing the negatives effects of praying amiss. But I pray that from today, we shall ask for help. Then, the Holy Spirit will help us to pray even with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Maranatha!
1 thought on “Negative Effects Of Praying Amiss”
Comments are closed.