Part 3: When Relationships With Others Are Broken
The Bible does not separate your spiritual life from how you treat people. A person may claim closeness with God while mistreating others, but Scripture says the two cannot be separated.
1 John 4:20, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.”
Our heart must be right, and our fellowship with God must be right, but Scripture also teaches that our relationships with others must be right if we want God to hear our prayers. A person cannot walk closely with God while living wrongly toward people. The same Bible that calls us to love God also commands us to love others. When bitterness, cruelty, dishonor, or neglect exist in our relationships, those things damages our fellowship with God. Prayer does not flow freely from a life that mistreats the very people God tells us to love. For this reason the Bible repeatedly shows that broken relationships with others can hinder our prayers. The following passages show us several ways this happens.
11. Refusing to Forgive Others
Mark makes it clear that forgiveness toward others maintains our fellowship with God.
Mark 11:25-26, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. [26] But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Unforgiveness poisons prayer. A bitter heart cannot have clear communion with a holy God.
12. Mistreating Your Wife
1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to dwell with their wives according to knowledge, “that your prayers be not hindered.”
God connects your spiritual life directly to the way you treat your spouse. Dishonor in the home hurts fellowship with heaven.
13. Ignoring the Needs of the Poor
Proverbs 21:13 says, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”
God expects compassion. A person who refuses mercy toward those who can’t help themselves should not expect to find it in prayer.
Scripture reveals three major causes of unanswered prayer: Inward (heart), upward (God), and outward (others).
God still hears prayer. The question is whether our hearts, our walk with Him, and our treatment of others are right.
