Turning Prayer into Sin

Here is a startling suggestion, the possibility that a man's prayer may become sin. Many things can turn prayer into sin. Insincerity will do it. A false pretense of piety will do it. Vanity and pride will do it. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken and contrite spirit; but he despises the pretense of prayer on the part of the haughty who pray merely that they may be heard of men.

There is no question but that many prayers are altogether in vain. Sin-- unrepented and unconfessed--renders prayer ineffectual. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Many of our so-called prayers are an abomination to His ears. But His ears are always open to true prayer. "The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth."

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus himself: "God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess."

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

"I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Let us not add to our sins the sin of sham prayers. Alexis Carrol, M.D., in his essay, "Prayer is Power," states: "It is meaningless to pray in the morning and to live like a barbarian the remainder of the day. True prayer is a way of life; the truest life is literally a way of prayer."

Lest our prayer become sin, when we come to make our supplication to God we should pray first, as did the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

"Let his prayer be counted as sin." Psalms 109:7.