What Are Hinderances To Prayer?

Apart from not applying specific principles to our prayer lives there are several other areas that hinder our prayers from being answered. We will outline several of these “hinderances to prayer” in the following discussion. I believe the number one hinderance to prayer is unforgiveness. Let’s look at this hinderance to prayer first.

Unforgiveness

In Mark 11:20 Jesus uses the lesson from the withered fig tree to teach his disciples about prayer. Immediately after this, He says the following:

25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

He tells his disciples that in order for me to forgive you and answer your prayers, you need to first forgive anything against anyone that has been done to you. This point is repeated in Matt. 6:14-15:

"14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Immediately after teaching about prayer he tells his disciple they need to forgive. The point is clear unforgiveness hinders our prayers. Furthermore, Paul wrote that we need to forgive others just as God in Christ forgave us in Ephesians 4:32 ESV:

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

As much as we are able, we need to forgive those who have wronged us.

Sin in our lives

Any sin in our lives hinders our prayers. Here are a few scriptures to illustrate this point:

• Psalm 66:18 ESV - "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."

• Isaiah 59:1–2 NKJV - "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear."

God does not listen; he does not hear our prayers when there is sin in our lives.

Not asking from the Right Motives

When we pray, we need to have the right motives otherwise our prayers will be hindered. Our motives need to be right even when asking for something we have every right to receive. Why we ask is just as important as what we ask for. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3 ESV

Failure to spend time in the Word of God

God will answer our prayers if we remain in his word, meditating on it and doing what it instructs us to do. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7 NKJV). To abide in Christ and and have his words abide in you is to keep His commandments. And do the things that please him John wrote of this in 1 John 3:21-22. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1 John 3:21-22 NKJV)

A Lack of Faith

When we pray, we have to believe several things. We must believe that God exists, that he hears our prayers, that he is willing and able to answer our prayers and that we receive the answer to our prayers even before we see the manifestation of those prayers in our everyday lives. James, the Lord’s brother, wrote the following regarding asking God for wisdom: When we pray, we need to do it in faith. We need to believe and do not doubt that the Lord will answer our requests. God has promised to do so and He always keeps His promises. If we lack faith the Bible says that we are unstable and will not receive anything from God because we do not trust Him to deliver our request.