What does sin have to do with our hearts and prayer?

What does sin have to do with our hearts and prayer?

The role of sin in the Christian
life is important to understand, because though we are forgiven, our sin still
has it’s consequences.  Knowing how sin
affects our walk, and what to do about it, will make the difference between a
successful walk and a failing one.

This is not an issue in
opposition to our Salvation.  Those in
Jesus are Saved and fully forgiven, though still sinners.  We are Justified now before God on the merit
of Christ’s Sacrifice.  However, we are
yet in the flesh, and we still suffer the results of our sin – all the way up
to death or when Christ returns and we are Glorified in our new bodies.

Though we are sinners, as
Righteous through Christ we may now approach the Throne of God in the Most Holy
Place in Heaven.  We may stand before God
in the Holy Spirit, clean under the Sacrifice of the Lamb’s Blood.

Yet, James 4:1-10 tells us
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.  We must approach God earnestly, in
faith.  Salvation is a good example; no
one has ever been Saved in his own pride, but only in true humility
before God.

Humility demands our recognition,
confession, repentance, and our plea for forgiveness – if we are to be set
free.  This is the pattern for all good
prayer.  Prayer is for conforming us, and
everything in this fallen world, to the desires of God.  It is for our interaction with God.  This humility is necessary for God to
recognize the sinner’s plea – be it a prayer to be Saved, or the prayer of an
experienced Christian.

So then, how does sin impact all
of this?  It hardens us, it hardens our
heart towards conformity to God’s Will and everything He desires for us.  Consider the issue and the effects of fasting
on a heart preparing to go before God. Consider Jesus’ words of having the
heart of a child in order to see Heaven. 
Consider the 4 soils and the effect of sin, or the lack of, in the good
soil.  Consider the battle between the
Spirit in us which speaks to our resurrected soul, and the sinful body we still
occupy which wants to do just the opposite.

All of these issues speak of the
Christian’s heart.  The Gift of the Holy
Spirit is for the express purpose of the transformation of our heart, and thus
our life.  All that we do and are flows
from the heart, and God’s primary concern is our heart and the results
following it.  The nurture of our heart
and our interaction with the Holy Spirit in us is our primary responsibility,
and sin is the obstacle standing in our way.

The nurture of our relationship
with the Spirit in us revolves around five things – the study of the Word to
know the Person, Heart, and Will of God; prayer to God seeking our conformity
to His Word; the deliberate pursuit of a holy life before God; our obedience to
His Word, supported in prayer made profitable through a holy life; and our joy
in obedience to God, bringing joy in experiencing Him.  All of these issues are common and are seated
in the heart.  If these are necessary for
our transformation to Christ’s image, and if our heart is centrally involved,
and if sin hardens our heart and so dampens our responsiveness to God – then
the only reasonable thing to do is what God already demands.  Examine yourself, see your sin in your
reflection in Scripture, see what you are to be, be conformed in obedience
under the help of the Holy Spirit, turn from your sin, and strive to be a
useful slave to Christ in the Kingdom of God.

See sin for the blight it
is.  See its hindrance on your heart, the
same heart responsible as the source of yourself and your Christian walk.  Recognize God’s despise of sin. Strive to be
holy, for He is holy.  Strive and live to
obey His law written on your heart.