Fighting And Praying

That your prayers may not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:7 NKJV

The right environment for answered prayer is one that's free from '… anger or disputing' (1 Timothy 2:8 NIV). God blesses where there's unity. That's why satan works so hard to keep husbands and wives at odds with each other. That way we won't pray together, much less expect our prayers to get God excited. Peter addresses this head-on: 'If you don't treat [your wife] as you should, your prayers will not get ready answers' (1 Peter 3:7 TLB). When a couple's prayers are hindered, the devil has the key to the house and he can come and go at will.

James gives us another angle on the foolishness of fighting and praying. Not only do we fight about stuff, but after we fight we still don't get what we want. Why? In some cases, it's because we should have prayed for it instead of fighting about it. In other cases, we don't get it because God isn't about to give it to us so we can blow it on ourselves. James writes, 'What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have… so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong… ' (James 4:1-3 NLT). You can't fight and pray at the same time - so decide which it's going to be!

Taken from Word for The Day,