Daily Devotional
What Prayer Makes God Angry?
“And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments”
Daniel 9:4-5
January 19, 2020
Ponder This
Daniel’s prayer here is not the prayer that makes God angry. Some people think “If we just pray, God will hear our prayer.” My dear friend, it is not so. Prayers of a wicked people anger God. They make the matter worse. It’s an affront to God.
The Bible says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). “The Lord is far from the wicked: but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29). Again, God says, “One that turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
Can you imagine—prayer could actually become an abomination to God. The psalmist said in Psalm 80:4, “…How long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?”
Practice This
Have you ever thought that a prayer of yours, rather than enlisting God’s mercy, might stir up God’s anger? Nothing angers God more than for a people stuffed full of sin and self to be imploring God to do something good for them when they stand in need of judgment. Confessed sin will be forgiven, but it must be confessed. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18).
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