Keeping Your Prayers Intact

I’m a thoroughly foolish but repentant man.

While I don’t flaunt the mistakes I’ve made, I rarely seek occasion to conceal them. But what I never used to understand is that my conduct had much to do with the potency of my prayers.

In his letter to those who [had] received a faith of the same kind as [his], the apostle Peter revealed this truth as a real stumbling block for husbands:

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.“ [2Pet. 3:7] [my emphasis]

Yet the worldly man rejects this conditional statement.

After all, isn’t it enough spending a lifetime trying to understand the female mind without being penalized for it too? And indeed, there was a time when I would’ve taken Peter’s words to heart so that the Lord would provide me with that new bass boat I’d been praying for…

But it never occurred to me to read the Bible. So I was satisfied enough to assume that it just wasn’t in the cards for me, since I probably didn’t consider praying to be that effective anyway. It was something you did at “church” or Thanksgiving—or when you were in a jam.

What’s remarkable to me about this passage isn’t just that it demonstrates the power of prayer. It also implies the act of praying to be an instinctive, essential habit in the course of daily living. It’s presented as a type of reflexive sustenance not unlike eating or sleeping.

You gotta have it. If you don’t, you’re gonna be in trouble.

Prayers were never intended to simply fill the voids in my life. They are, rather, instruments of my faith, able to help anticipate along with the Spirit “…everything [I need] pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called [me] by His own glory and excellence.” [2Pet. 1:3]

There are caveats to offering up effective prayers.

The Bible tells us about them.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” [Ja. 5:16]