Pray Up!

Proverbs 15:29

Main Idea: You can only pray to God through Jesus Christ.

1. Who Can Pray to God? Only the Righteous Can (15:29).
2. How Do We Pray to God? We Humbly Confess (28:13).

Everyone—even those outside the church—think that God hears every prayer. Most people, some of whom do not even believe in Jesus or practice Christianity, pray. They pray for their children, their health, and their families. Many people can even tell you that God “always answers your prayers,” but the answer could be yes, no, or maybe later.

That is why people got so enraged when a Southern Baptist Convention president had the audacity to say, “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew” (“Baptist Leader”). There were all kinds of reasons that the comment sparked controversy and outrage in a world with multiple religions and a fondness for cultural pluralism. But one of the biggest reasons people were upset was not because of the perceived offense to the Jewish faith specifically but rather because anyone, especially a pastor, would dare suggest that God does not hear someone’s prayer. Everyone believes that God hears and responds to our prayers.

Is it possible that God would give someone “the silent treatment”? Honestly, the Bible says yes to this question. God does give the silent treatment to some people. That might be alarming for many people. If that is true, some important questions need to be asked like, Whose prayer does God hear? Why might he not listen to mine? How can I pray in such a way that God will answer me?

Let’s look to the Proverbs and see the answers to these questions, so that our prayer lives can be radically changed. Proverbs 15:29 says, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” What does this mean?

Who Can Pray to God? Only the Righteous Can

Proverbs 15:29

This verse uses Hebrew poetic parallelism. There are several kinds of parallelism: sometimes the second line says something similar to the first; sometimes it says the opposite. In this case, one line can be looked at to fill out the other. So when the first line says that the Lord is far from wicked people, we can conclude that he is near righteous people; and when it says he hears the prayer of the righteous, we can surmise that he does not hear the prayer of wicked people.

When the text says that he does not hear their prayer, it does not mean that he does not audibly hear it. He hears the words because he is an omniscient God, but he does not respond to them (Longman, Proverbs, 322). He will not do anything about the prayer. We understand what that is like. Sometimes we are in a conversation with someone and we tune him or her out, or we hear what they are saying as background noise but do not respond.

God is not with the wicked in crisis like he is with the righteous. The Bible is clear on this point. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.”

The problem for many of us is that we assume we are righteous. We think to ourselves, “I am basically a good person,” and we assume that God hears us. But the question must be asked, Who are “the wicked”? The Bible indicates that we are! The wicked are those who reject God’s law and instruction—those who disobey his word. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). We are all wicked, and that is why Proverbs 28:9 says, “Anyone who turns his ear away from hearing the law—even his prayer is detestable.” If you do not listen to Yahweh’s word to you, he will not listen to your words to him! Murphy and Huwiler refer to the “deafness of a person” and the “deafness of God” to their prayer (Proverbs, 138). Yahweh finds the prayers of ­sinners—all of us—detestable. He finds them repugnant (Waltke, Proverbs, Chapters 15–31, 413).

Therefore, if you do not listen to God’s word (i.e., obey it), God will not listen to you. This includes sins of commission and omission—doing what you are not supposed to do and not doing what you are supposed to do. So if you lie, take God’s name in vain, or take something that does not belong to you (sins of commission), then God will not hear your prayer. And if you can’t let go of a grudge, you are selfish, or you do not serve your wife (sins of omission), then God will not hear your prayer. For example, Proverbs says that the wicked are those who refuse to be generous to the poor, and thus God does not hear their prayer: “The one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself also call out and not be answered” (21:13). If you are not generous to your neighbor, God will not hear your prayers. Murphy and Huwiler argue that it could be either man or God here in this verse (Proverbs, 105).

In some ways, this truth may not seem all that shocking. Many people think, “If you are a good person, God will listen to you; and if you are a bad person, God will not listen to you.” We tend toward a works-righteousness approach that believes God is always more favorable to good people.

So at this point you may be thinking, “God will never accept me or listen to me because of all the sinful things I have done . . . he only hears good, church-going people.” We think he only listens to pious people who pray in King James English using “thee and thou.” So you might be thinking you are going to have to clean up your act and start doing what God wants you to do so that he will listen to you; and by that you mean things like get back in church, start giving, and be part of Bible studies. Wrong! Proverbs 15:8 says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” Goldsworthy writes, “The folly of the wicked is to think that formal and outward adherence to the law can benefit them in any way at all” (Tree of Life, 115). The issue is the “sacrificer,” not the sacrifice; it’s the one doing the ritual, not the ritual itself. God cannot stand mere religious ritual because it is an attempt to manipulate God. Religious ritual that is not accompanied by heart change is worthless. This type of religion says, “If I am good and do what God says, he will owe me some favors.” That is manipulation. Mere behavior modification is not the answer; God detests it!

People in the Old Testament were sinners just like us, so sacrifices were performed—similarly to the cross itself—to atone for sin and bring forgiveness. The problem is that God says the wicked are not really repentant or humbly dependent on God. They think if they just perform the ritual then God owes them, like people today think if they just go to church, give, and have a quiet time, then God has to answer them. Without accompanying faith and dependence, these rituals are a waste of time.

In every generation people have tried to do religious rituals in an attempt to manipulate God’s favor—to put God in their debt as if he owes them. At least three times in my life a ministry group has mass-mailed me a “prayer rug.” The so-called prayer rug is a picture of what people think Jesus’s face looks like, and the note with the rug promises that if you will pray with your knees on this rug, God will give you $47,000 like he did with some poor soul under a mountain of debt. This ministry promises that if you do this prayer act, God will give you what you want. That’s not Christianity; that’s paganism!

The problem is that we can comfort ourselves by saying, “I’m not like that,” but we do the same kind of thing. We think if we are good or if we do certain things, God will listen to us and act on our behalf. It may not be a prayer rug; it might just be bargaining with God: “God, if you get me out of this jam, I promise I will walk more closely with you.” Or we think if I just give up my besetting sin—pornography, profanity, or my temper—then God will finally listen to me. If I can just turn over a new leaf, God will stop giving me the silent treatment. If I can just get this lust or this arrogance out of my life, maybe God will let us win the game, ace the exam, or get the job!

This approach to God is revealed clearly in our reluctance to approach God when we feel like we are in the valley. I ( Jon) remember going through a period of rebellion in my freshman year of college and thinking, “I can’t even pray to God for forgiveness right now because I don’t deserve for him to listen to me. He must be so angry with me right now.” Because of the sin in your life, you feel like you cannot pray or that it will not do any good. You think you must clean yourself up first. That is also manipulative paganism, not Christianity.

Therefore, no matter who we are, we have a huge problem. If you think you are good and God definitely answers your prayers, then you have a reality problem because the Bible says you are a sinner. And if you think you are bad and God will not listen unless you clean your act up, then you have a religion problem because God is not manipulated by ritual!

We have a big problem: God does not respond to the prayers of the wicked, and that is us. And if religion is not the answer, how can we pray at all? Humanity has had this problem since the garden of Eden—we have been separated from God. In Psalm 24 the psalmist asks a key question about who can approach God. The answer: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart” (24:4). Clearly that is not us; only one man in history fits that description—Jesus of Nazareth, the King of glory (Ps 24:7).

Jesus lived the perfect, righteous life that we could never live; then he died the death we should have died, and God accepted his sacrifice because he is the righteous one (cf. Prov 15:8). Jesus was cut off from God—separated from the Father for us. He was the one who cried out and was unanswered because he bore our sin in his own body on the cross (Matt 27:46; 1 Pet 2:24). And it is through his atonement that the relationship with God that humanity lost in the garden is finally restored. His death tore in two the veil separating humanity and God so that now we have bold access to the Father (Matt 27:51; Heb 10:19-22).

God heard the cries of his righteous Son on the third day and rescued him from death. Then Jesus ascended the hill of the Lord to sit at the Father’s right hand. Now he always lives to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25). We have access to boldly approach the throne in prayer and not shrink back (Heb 4:16). Our prayers are heard by God because Jesus is our righteous mediator before the Father, and through his ­righteousness—not ours—God answers our prayers!

How Do We Pray to God? We Humbly Confess

Proverbs 28:13

Since we are wicked and do not deserve for God to hear us, and since the only way we have access is through Jesus, then the only manner in which we should come before God is humble dependence. We recognize that it is only through Jesus that we have access. That is what it means to pray in Jesus’s name. It is not a magic formula to tack on at the end of the prayer; it is acknowledgement that Jesus is the one who grants us access to the Father so that he hears us!

Since we are sinners, the first step in our prayer life should be to admit our sin and confess it to God. Proverbs 28:13 says, “The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.” Proverbs says not to hide or deny our sin but to confess it and abandon it. Adam and Eve attempted to hide their sin in the garden (Gen 3); we are called to do the opposite. We cannot minimize our sin, act like it is not there, or attempt to cover it. Also, confession is more than simply being sorry that we got caught or the fear of the consequences of our actions. Confession is admitting that you have sin in your life, agreeing that it deserves judgment, crying to God for mercy, and agreeing that you need to abandon it altogether. Some people try to confess their sin without forsaking their sin. They feel bad about it, but they do not take measures to kill it in their life. You must fight against your sin! You must be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

If you think you are good enough, you are dead wrong. The only way to come into God’s presence is to admit that you do not belong. Righteousness is found in repentance. As Proverbs has indicated, rituals that are not accompanied with penitent piety are detestable. We do not try to manipulate God; we humbly depend on his mercy through Christ.

The problem is that even Christians who know the good news start to act like pagans. We start to believe the lie that we have to clean up our act for God to respond favorably to us, and that if we do not clean up our act, God will zap us. That is not grace. We humbly and simply plead for the mercy of God through the cross of Christ. In Christ, God is always for us and never against us. He may discipline us for our good (Heb 12:5-13), but he will not condemn or judge us. So come to God in humble confession in prayer!

Conclusion

Jesus told the story of two men praying—a Pharisee and a tax collector. God accepted one man’s prayer and rejected the other man’s prayer. The shocking turn of events was that the story did not follow expected patterns. Everyone listening to Jesus expected the righteous-looking, religious Pharisee to be heard; and they expected the sinful tax collector to be given the silent treatment. But Jesus said the tax collector was heard because he was too ashamed to even lift his eyes to heaven as he said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). God did not only hear that man, but God also justified him. If you want to be heard by the King of the universe, then come humbly as a sinner and plead the mercy of Christ.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What answers do most people think God gives to everyone’s prayers?
2. What do you think about the statement, “God does not hear everyone’s prayer”? How does it make you feel?
3. Who does Proverbs say that God listens to?
4. Who are the “wicked” according to the Bible? Why?
5. According to Proverbs 21:13, what is considered a wicked act that will lead to your prayer being unheard?
6. Why can religious ritual be a form of manipulation?
7. Have you ever had a rough patch in your life where you felt like you could not pray to God? Why did you feel that way?
8. What does it mean to pray “in Jesus’s name”?
9. Why do we have a tendency to limit our confession to simple regret of the consequences?
10. What does true confession look like?