Holding on to sin

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. - Psalm 66v18-19

I have been aware of this verse for a good while. Normally I come across it when I am teaching or preaching on prayer. It is usually a part of a list of verses under the category 'hindrances to prayer.'

That is true. Holding on to sins in our hearts and not dealing with them is indeed a hindrance to prayer. That is not to say that God refuses to hear prayer every time we sin. If that were the case we would be without hope, because we are always going to have to deal with sin.

The problem is that sin that we just don't want to deal with. We harbour sin in our hearts. We treasure our sin more than we treasure our relationship with God. We are serving one master while wanting another Master to hear our prayers and answer our requests.

We really can't have it both ways. We can't serve one master and still expect another to take care of things for us. If we choose to serve sin then we can expect to suffer the consequences.

But I really like the next verse where the psalmist writes – 'But certainly God has heard me, He has attended to the voice of my cry.'

While the concept of 'if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me' may have negative overtones, 'but certainly God has heard me' is a wonderful blessing.

The answer is simple. If we want to be able to say 'certainly God has heard me' we just need to deal with that sin that we have been 'regarding in our hearts.'

But I really like the next verse where the psalmist writes – 'But certainly God has heard me, He has attended to the voice of my cry.'

While the concept of 'if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me' may have negative overtones, 'but certainly God has heard me' is a wonderful blessing.

The answer is simple. If we want to be able to say 'certainly God has heard me' we just need to deal with that sin that we have been 'regarding in our hearts.'