Scripture
Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant (Mal. 2:14).
Observation
Ever think God turns His ear from our prayers? Do you think he'd ever NOT pay attention?
Finding access to the throne of God has a set of requirements ... and at the top of that list is my relationship with my wife, Anna. God takes my marriage very seriously. The condition of my relationship with my bride determines, to a large extent, my accessibility to God's throne. My relationship with Jesus requires me to sustain the quality my marriage... not a façade of it. If I am serious about God's answering my prayers, I must take responsibility for the genuineness and authenticity of my marriage relationship.
Times of struggle may be inevitable because we are human. Nevertheless, we will be the ones who will determine whether those seasons will be short or long. God promises to heal, but we will determine how long it will take.
If I want my relationship with Christ to be at its best, my marriage is not an option. I am noticing the older I get, the less and less of a vote I have on the matter. The quality of my marriage is one of my highest assignments in this life... greater than my job, my financial success, my ministry among Christians, or my ratings as a pastor.
Two other Prerequisites
1. James tells us that if our motives are self-centered, our prayers will be hindered.
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
2. Proverbs 1 reminds us that if we refuse wisdom, we will struggle. Wisdom speaks:
"Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof ... they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me" (Pr. 1:24,28).
Application
We only go around once in this lifetime, and I must therefore live life well. I will continue to establish what is most important and keep myself accountable to excelling in these. I will also learn increase my definition of what prayer is. It is 90% preparing and 10% asking. I think we often do it the opposite. We ask for 90% of the time and prepare less than 10%. We "sow among thorns" without preparing the soil first and wonder why the harvest is so poor.
Prerequisites to answers ... it's time to get to work and build right!
Prayer
Dear Father:
Thank you for recalibrating me back to what's most important. Thank you for Your Word that teaches me truth. It is easier for us to resign ourselves to the stock definition of prayer as "asking" for whatever we need without giving much forethought to the preparation. It would be like taking a shortcut in construction and building a house on bare soil because digging and leveling, setting forms, and taking the time to construct footings is too much work. Instead, we impatiently pass bypass what's most important (the unseen) for what is more visible (the seen).
Please teach me to be patient to build a life that lasts.
