Yesterday morning while reading 1 Peter my attention was drawn to two verses in which Peter touched on something that can hinder our prayers:
The first one comes at the end of a warning to husbands and wives to love each other, summing up this admonishment with this:
"and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV)
The second comes after stating the importance of avoiding temptations to join others in following after lusts of the flesh, human passions, and debauchery and then saying:
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7 (ESV)
It is less clear in the KJV where it is:
The first one comes at the end of a warning to husbands and wives to love each other, summing up this admonishment with this:
"and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV)
The second comes after stating the importance of avoiding temptations to join others in following after lusts of the flesh, human passions, and debauchery and then saying:
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 1 Peter 4:7 (ESV)
It is less clear in the KJV where it is:
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
While reading it made perfect sense that when we live a careless life, doing those things that we have freedom in Christ to do, yet things that are not profitable to do (1st Corinthians 6:12), we hinder our relationship with Christ in the same way we hinder our relationship in a marriage where our communication then as a consequence suffers.
If we truly love the Lord we want to have that right relationship, one where we stay in communion with each other, praying for each other, even for our enemies, forgiving each other as Jesus has forgiven us and steering clear from those things that would hinder our prayers and our communication with the One who loves us the most.
True and I am glad that I have read this. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi Aritha (Jeditha) thank you, glad we are still in touch! Love your blogs ❤️glad we can encourage each other ☺️
ReplyDelete1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
ReplyDeleterejoice always; pray unceasingly; in everything give thanks.
But it is sobering that things can hinder our prayers, including relationships with our spouses.
Yes, we need our Lord every day. I once thought about how my mom would complain if I neglected too long in calling her, how much more should we stay in intimate touch with our Creator Redeemer and healer and best friend?
DeleteAmen, Susan! Life is so short, and we should be on our guard not to miss opportunities to serve Him and communicate with Him, and not to squander time on idle chatter or pursuits that have no eternal significance. Doing so can remove our focus from Christ, where it needs to be, and hinder our communion with Him and our relationships with others. Thanks for the great post and God bless!
ReplyDeleteLaurie
Hi Laurie, so true, I am so scatterbrained and easily side tracked. Seeing those verses pop off the Bible pages were indeed helpful for me <3
DeleteHi Susan,
DeleteThe devil works overtime to keep us distracted and too busy to enjoy our quiet time with God. Praise God that He will give us perfect peace when our mind is fixed on Him. God bless.
Dank je wel Susan. An important lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord is so wonderful to supply us with wonderful lessons. Thank you Aritha :)
DeleteSusan, I have been to church this morning and this sentence that you have written was literally spoken of by one of the men who go there:-
ReplyDelete'The first one comes at the end of a warning to husbands and wives to love each other, summing up this admonishment with this:'
I totally agree with what you have written, as it is all scriptural. Thank you for visiting my blog, I have only been back on line for three days as we have moved to a new housing development and the service provider was not connected for the past few months. It is nice to be back blogging. God bless you.
I just looked at your profile Susan, I too love Romans ch. 8 v.28. Also another verse I have always loved is Psalm 18 v. 1 'I will love Thee O Lord my strength.'
ReplyDeleteHi Brenda, thank you for visiting and your kind comments, I haven’t posted as much asI’d like to because I am super busy with our home and garden at the moment, but hope to get something up again real soon ☺️❤️🙏
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