We know it is a good thing for believers to approach God in prayer with thanksgiving and an honest dose of reality, namely that we are in need of mercy, and in particular pardon for missing the mark. The practice of prefacing prayer with a request for pardon so that the rest of the prayer can be accepted seems to be out of whack with Divine Providence. The practice raises the question of whether God accepts even thanksgiving from a sinner who has not yet asked for specific pardon for that wrongdoing. The practice turns prayer into a ritualistic mishmash of reciting affirmations of God’s goodness and highlighting strategic doctrines. Most importantly, the question arises: who hears the sinner when he calls on God?
One has to be sinless for God to hear the prayer
How absurd can we get when we propose that the God whose trademark is grace mercy, peace and pardon refuses to accept a request from a person who needs his most vital services? Do people not get saved – from sin – by calling on God?
One has to be sinless for God to answer the prayer
I suppose that we can explain millions of unanswered prayers by the phenomenon that all men are sinners. We are not able even to find two people agreeing in prayer, since we think that two individuals, cleansed of all sin, can prevail in prayer. Christ was all alone in his prayer to endure the cross. Elijah stood alone when he prayed for drought and prayed for rain.
Sinners forget that prayer is not sacrifice
The words we use in prayer are often our own trashy speculation and evil surprising. When they are not they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is obvious that the same prayer, repeated daily and weekly, for cleaning from all unrighteousness is child’s play.
- How many sins are there?
- Does God refuse to forgive repeat sins?
- When does a sin become something other that has no divine solution?
There is much more terrorism and impulses to victimize people over their sins than there is for people to feel caught up in the challenge of doing good and beautiful works of love. It cannot be true that God is not listening to sinners and it must be true that the prayers of bewitched believers often go unnoticed.
House of prayer for all people
Of course God hears sinners and built a house to give voice to the veracity of his readiness to listen, hear and respond.
24) If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house, 25) then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers. (2 Chronicles 6:24-25, NASB)
This dedication of the house God owns as his own must be recognized as expectation of fellowship with sinners. The function of the tabernacle was evidently more than blood, flesh, and bread and wine. The temple, at least in this regard, functioned as the conduit for God to hear sinners. He brought the people of Judah back to the land with a mighty show of sovereignty over Persian power.
Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; 2Chr 6:32 Then hear thou from the heavens, [even] from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as [doth] thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. 2Chr 6:33
Here is the promise, the assurance, that a God, deaf to sinners, is not happening.
Then hear thou from the heavens, [even] from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee. 2Chr 6:39
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 