Dear Christians, can you please explain something to me about a scripture?

Question

I've heard Christians say that if any Christian has sin in their life, God will turn a deaf hear to them when they pray and that God will turn his face away from them. They believe this because of Psalm 66:18. But in the following 2 verses after that it clearly says that, "God hath heard me, He hath attended to the voice of my prayer..blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer or His mercy from me." And in Hebrews 13:5 He promises that HE will never leave or forsake us.
Does that not go against the teachings of Christ?

I meant to write that some believe that God will turn a deaf ear to them...not "hear." Sorry about that.

Answer 1

David says if he would "regard iniquity" The meaning of regard is somewhat like saying "treasure or look adoringly at, or enjoy"
He goes on to say that the Lord has heard him, meaning he was not holding on to, or treasuring sin in his heart.
It is not that if we have a sin in our lives God will not hear us, but whether or not we are willing to turn from that sin and seek him.
He does not turn his mercy from us, but we can turn our faces from him and revel in our sins. In such a place we cannot expect his audience.
He does not leave us. If anyone does the leaving it is us.
There is a verse that says, "the Lords hand is not shortened... nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but you iniquities have separated you..."
Hope you understand what I'm trying to say. God wants to hear us. We must want to turn from sin to him.

Answer 2

When you deal with scripture, you often have to look at what is called "context". That means, who was God speaking to and why.

For example, in the books of Hebrew, the author is writing to Jewish Christians who were being persecuted because of their faith, and were tempted to turn from it and go back to Judism. He is encouraging them that if they stay with their Christian faith, God will bring them through the persecution. Thus the promise that he will never leave or forsake them in their time of persecution. The verse really has nothing to do with "prayer".

In Psalm 66, the author is listing the things his has done to try to keep their from being any sin between himself and God. This includes sin offerings, etc. He acknowledges that IF there is sin between them, God will not hear him when he prays. He that states that God does hear and answer him, so that most mean there was no sin between them. Kind of like, if you speed you will get a ticket, but since I did not get a ticket when I drove by the officer, I must not have been speeding.

I don't see any kind of a contradiction or issue between the two scriptures. Rather a logical progression of the subject of the Psalm.

Answer 3

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me]
This is a tricky psalm to interpret, mine would be that the person talking to people, which I believe he is, he is telling them that if I (himself) thinks there is something bad in him that God will turn a deaf ear. then the other psalms speak of how when he lifted his voice up he was heard and forgiven. I've read a decent bit of the bible but this verse has always messed me up somewhat. But I don't think it goes against the teachings and writings in the bible! I think it's supposed to be interpreted by the individual reading it. So take heart and happy reading!

Answer 4

In the new covenant, the Christian is dead to sin and freed from sin. The Christian is reconciled to God and has access to God. The old man is crucified with Christ. Christians walk with God.

Sin is no longer their lifestyle. One may occasionally sin, and it is not counted against them. The problem was/is the one who's sins continually as a matter of habit.

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Answer 5

One thing is very clear in the bible- and that is that sin separates us from God. When we make a conscious decision to continue to sin and put behavior contrary to God before loving him, he gives us his wish and allows the separation. That is what Hell really is- being eternally separated from that force which gives us love and life and joy. Hell is the burning desire, once you know the truth, to be with God, but you cannot because he gave you what you wanted.
This is what the scripture talks about as far as I can tell.
It is a lot harder to separate ourselves from God since Jesus came- as he released the Holy Spirit to live within believers, but the Psalm was written before that event.

Answer 6

You're correct, God will turn a deaf ear to our prayers of petition if we live in sin. These Bible verses state, "Had I cherished evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard, but God did hear..." These verses state that the writer did not cherish evil in his heart so God heard him.

The verses of the Bible explaining sin that separates us from God are the ten commandments. When we break them we have separated ourselves from Him. This is the law of the Jews. Christians are Jews from their baptism into the body. of Christ Jesus who is a Jew.

The good news is that there are several types of prayer. The prayers of contrition or confession are always heard by God. He never leaves us. He waits patiently to hear our plea for forgiveness.

God wants to forgive us for all sin. Through a perfect act of contrition we are able to return to God's grace. A perfect act of contrition is prayer to God exposing our complete disgust, sorrow and rejection of our sins for the love of God and His infinite goodness.

If we feel distance from God because our prayers of petition are not being "heard." We should examine ourselves for serious sins. It is possible that prayers of contrition are needed alone until we return to His grace no longer cherishing evil in our hearts.

Once in God's grace He hears our petitions. We are at peace knowing that our petitions are closer, more purely within His desires for us. God always knows what we need. He just likes to hear us ask for it.

Yours in Christ Jesus

Answer 7

Now in Psalms 66:18 It says that..'If I had cherished my inequity in my Heart, the Lord will not have listened'.

Of course you cannot cherish bad things in your heart and talk to God and also have God!

You need to choose out of the two which you will cherish! God or Bad!

It's simple as that! Of course if you choose the right God from his Heavenly place will hear you call upon him!

God Bless.

Answer 8

I'm not sure which part you think goes against the teachings of Christ, but I do not believe that God turns a deaf ear to those who have sin in their lives. According to sound Christian doctrine, we all have sin in our lives.

Answer 9

God is satisfied consisting of his works (Gen a million:31) God is disillusioned consisting of his works. (Gen 6:6) i'm extremely particular that the diverse context should be obvious even to an atheist. except for at the same time as they try to be wise it really is. God dwells in chosen temples (2 Chron 7:12,16) God dwells no longer in temples (Acts 7:40 8) the first refers back to the dueteronomistic theology to be cutting-edge in some books of the former testomony, in which God's "call" become understood to live contained in the temple at Jerusalem. the 2d refers to God's transcendence over his advent. God dwells in gentle (Tim 6:16) God dwells in darkness (a million Kings 8:12) the first refers to God's inexpressable glory. the 2d refers back to the very undeniable truth that God won't be able to be considered by technique of human eyes. i'm no longer going to plough via each and every of the others, yet once back we've an atheist indulging contained in the variety of crass literalism that would do a fundamentalist proud. Are atheists so endowed with tunnel imaginitive and prescient that they are incapable of expertise the different style of language?

Answer 10

I see that many have answered you and told you that God hears us no matter what and that he loves us no matter what. If that is true then why would the Bible tell us that God hates certain things? (Proverbs 6: 16-19)
He will always be there for us, if we show him that we are repentant and want to do what is right. If we live our lives doing whatever WE want to do, and it's things that are condemned by the Bible, then God will want nothing to do with us.