Hindrances to Prayer — Chad Thompson

Again, if we could just open in prayer. Scott, would you pray?

In your area, I'm always close to sleep. For these things to be pressed upon my heart to fight, it scares me almost to sleep. I'm afraid of what you will be putting on in terms of prayer and practice that will help you to remember all the different points and helps that have already been shared.

It's a lot to remember at once. So I pray that you would just be keeping us in these things as we can for now. Just pray that they are helping us here today. Amen.

Well, those of you who were here last week, you may feel like you got two messages in one. It went so long. It wasn't until Monday, the day after, that I started looking at what I was going to share for this week and realized you probably didn't get two messages in one because I had planned on giving two messages on kind of emphases in the Lord Jesus' teaching that we hadn't really looked at yet.

And the two emphases were, one, perseverance in prayer, and two, the different assurances the Lord gives us that the Father loves us and will hear our prayers. And what I realized is that even though kind of in my own mind I had these two different things to share, the way that Jesus teaches about perseverance and helps us is by assuring us that God is our Father, He loves us, and He will hear our prayers, even if it looks like He doesn't hear them, which is exactly what I shared last week.

So there really wasn't the message to give that I had planned. And so we're just going to move right on and speak this morning about hindrances to prayer. And, you know, other weeks that I had talked, I had given portions of the message that were kind of set apart as kind of practical helps.

And there won't be that today, mainly because I feel like the whole message is kind of a, it's a real practical helps kind of message. When you think of hindrances to prayer, it all applies. It's all needful.

It's all helpful to know. And so that's kind of the nature of the message. Today, again, I just want to talk about this subject of hindrances to prayer. Now, we've been considering prayer or praying for quite a while.

And as we've gone, I've tried to kind of give us kind of a practical theology of prayer. And I think that because of that, most of us would feel, I hope rightly so, that we've got a pretty good handle on prayer.

And I really hope that's the case for all of us, that we do have a good handle on it. But today, I just want to begin by asking everybody a question. And it's not a question I want you to answer out loud.

But I do want you to answer it just before the Lord in your own heart, very honestly. And it may be a question you haven't really thought to ask yourself. But the idea of a message on hindrances to prayer assumes this question, assumes that we're asking this question and that we want help and answers in this area.

And the question is this, and I'll ask it several different ways. Are your prayers working? Are your prayers working? I'm not asking if we understand theologically that prayer, that God listens to prayer and He can answer prayer.

I'm asking you to ask yourself, are your prayers working? The prayers that you pray to God, does He answer them? Or does He not? Sit down and ask yourself, what are the things I've been praying for the last month, year?

Has God answered those things, or hasn't He? Are you aware of the specific ways that God has been working in the lives and hearts of others, and even yourself, as a result of your specific prayers? What are the results?

Do you routinely see God answering your prayer? Or are you surprised when He actually answers something that you've asked? Hindrances to prayer. Now, I'm not assuming a negative answer for any of you on that.

I think very likely most of us can say yes on very many occasions and very many instances that the Lord answers our prayers. But I can tell you that without taking anything at all away from the need for perseverance in prayer, I can tell you from my own personal walk with the Lord and from just reading the Scriptures, that sometimes if an answer does not come to something that we've asked God for in prayer, if we will just ask the Lord to do some heart searching, many times we'll find that we ourselves are the reason that the Lord hasn't answered the prayer, that we've hindered the answer.

And so I want to set some of these hindrances before us today so that we can be aware of them, because they're important. And my point in doing that is kind of twofold. First of all, I want your prayers to be answered.

And you want your prayers to be answered. So we want to know what things might hinder them to get those things out of the way so that prayers would be answered. So that's one. But the second reason, and this one's almost bigger, is that I want to keep you from losing faith in God.

That's maybe the big reason. And it's a big one. Particularly I want you to not lose faith in His promises to answer the prayers of His people. I don't want you to lose faith in Him. Very often people...

I mean, you've talked to people like this. I'm sure you have. They're kind of disillusioned with the biblical view of prayer. They're disillusioned with what God says about His willingness and His ability to answer prayer.

And they're disillusioned because a lot of times they forget that they're dealing with a sovereign and righteous Creator. And that God is that way. He's not some genie or some force to be manipulated and controlled.

He's a sovereign and a righteous God. And He has standards. And we can forget that. I'll say it this way. There are some prayers that God will not ever answer. And there are some people that God will not hear.

And it may sound shocking, but even as Christians we can fall into, at times, either one of those camps. We can get into the situation where we're praying prayers that God will not answer. Or we can find ourselves that because of sin, because of uncleanness, God is not hearing us.

And we're not one of the people that He'll hear at that time. In spite of being a Christian. And so, that's a real danger. And so, even as Christians, again, we can find ourselves in either of those groups if we do not watch our lives closely and carefully.

And there's one other thing I want to say about these hindrances before we begin to look at them and begin to open the Scripture and begin to look at the text. And the idea is this, that the idea of hindrances to prayer assumes a certain theology of prayer.

If I were to say, well, let's talk about hindrances to prayer, that assumes something. What does it assume? It assumes that the normal routine in Christian experience and in Christian prayer is that God gives us the things that we ask for.

In other words, we would expect that God gives us the answer. When we don't, we think, well, we ask the question, well, what's hindering it? So, it assumes that normally God answers. It assumes that the normal life of prayer is one of contact with God.

We actually get through. It's one that we receive from Him, not only the things that we ask for, but even His assurances that we've been heard. It assumes those things. Otherwise, we would not be talking about, we wouldn't have a message dealing with hindrances to prayer or this idea that things that aren't usually there that are in the way, that can kind of creep in and keep your prayers from being heard, muffle your prayers to God.

Instead, we'd be talking about something else, something like this, those rare people who have actually prayed something that God answered. Or those even rarer instances where God actually has answered a prayer.

And what we'd be doing is trying to figure out what their secret is and how did they do it? How is it possible that they did such a thing as that? So, we'd be talking about secrets to effectual prayer rather than hindrances to prayer.

And these hindrances, of course, will keep our prayers from being heard and answered by God as they should be. So, it assumes a certain theology of prayer. So, what I want to say is that the idea of hindrances to prayer, I also want to say this, that that's not something unknown to the Bible.

The Bible talks to us about this and teaches us about hindrances to prayer. It's not something that men who are self-deceived and foolishly optimistic have kind of invented in order to maintain their faith in a higher power and in a benevolent power that somehow is for us.

And you'll hear that kind of talk from atheists and things like that. Oh, you just kind of persuaded yourself that there's a good power and you like that because He looks after us. But that's not at all what we're talking about.

Just the opposite. God has, in Scripture, revealed something very clear about Himself. And He's done it clearly in His Word that there are certain conditions for prayer that must be met. And also, He's told us certain things that will hinder our prayers.

And so when I talk to you about things that can hinder your prayers, the reason that I do it is the same reason that God talks about it in Scripture. And the reason God does it is this. Not to put a blindfold on you and to keep you foolish and ignorant.

It's not to put your head in a bunch of sand and convince us in that way that God really does care for us after all despite all the evidence and all the facts. The reason is so that He would dispel the darkness.

The reason is so that the light of His truth would shine upon us in that area that we might all live before Him more freely, more joyfully in the Christian life. He says that we're going to ask Him of things and He'll give us what we ask and our joy is going to be full.

So that's why I would teach on this thing of hindrances to prayer. And what we'll see is that almost all hindrances to prayer come from an ignorance in us either of what the Bible says about God's very serious desire that we as Christians live holy lives or we'll see that very often hindrances to prayer have to do with an unwillingness in us to commit fully and wholly to Him.

Those are very often the hindrances to prayer. You can kind of categorize them that way. Either an ignorance about what the Bible says about holiness or an unwillingness to commit to a holy life. And so what I've done today is to sort of categorize some of the various Scriptures that deal with this issue.

Not under those categories but just I've kind of grouped them a little bit. And I won't have you turn to many of them but maybe, I don't know, a half dozen or so that we'll turn to. We'll look at I think at least one Scripture on every category.

And so I've just listed out some hindrances that I think are helpful because they're kind of big ones. And so we'll just begin to go through them. The first one I want to look at is the hindrance of disobedience.

Disobedience as a Hindrance to Prayer

Hindrances to prayer. Disobedience is the first one. If you turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15 and verse 7. It's a very familiar passage to us but a remarkable one nonetheless. John 15 and verse 7.

If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Just listen to those words. If you abide in Me and we could give the same condition again. And if My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

Notice the condition. If you ask whatever you wish it's going to be done for you provided you meet these conditions. It's remarkable. So what are the conditions? The first one, abiding in Christ. Well, what is it?

What does that mean? Well, I suppose a great many people have tried to give different definitions of it. But if I had to boil or describe it in different ways, but if I had to boil it down, I don't think we could get around the fact that it at least includes faith and trust in Christ.

It includes a living and a loving relationship with Him. Abiding in Him. It includes what we talked about a few weeks ago when we considered what Paul meant when he said to pray continually. To just live 24 -7 in the light of His presence and just to live there before Him.

That's what it means. Abiding in Christ. Now what is this thing of Christ's words abiding in us if my words abide in you? What does that mean? Well, for this, I just can't believe that it means anything other than that His words, namely His commands and His teachings, that they find a welcome home in our heart.

That they become the foundation of our lives. We build our lives upon His words. That we are in a habit of life, we are habitually obedient to all the things that He spoke. His words abide in us. They find a home in our lives.

That His words are a source of continual meditation for us. Of pondering through all our days. David said in Psalm 119 .11, I have stored up Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. I've stored it up in my heart.

It abides there. That's where it is. Jeremiah 15 .16 says it this way, Listen to this, Your words were found and I ate them and Your words became to me a joy and a delight of my heart. For I am called by Your name, O Lord, God of hosts.

I ate Your words and they became for me a joy and a delight. That sounds like words abiding in somebody. Paul says in Colossians 3 .16, he commands us, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let it dwell in you richly.

That's something of this abiding. In John's 2nd epistle, he says that the truth abides in us and will be with us forever. It abides in us. And so the words of Christ are to abide in the believer. And there's a real sense in which receiving from God whatever we ask in prayer is dependent upon our meeting this condition.

You cannot pray the promise and not consider the condition for it. You cannot say I want to claim that promise and then not be willing to meet the condition. And so if we're going to take the words of Christ seriously and if we want to pray, then we're going to have to live in such a way that the words of Christ abide in us, that they flourish in our lives.

And that means meditation. It means memorization. It means faith and trust. And if that faith counts for anything, it's going to have to mean obedience. It's going to have to mean walking it out. Proverbs 28 and verse 9 says, If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

We're talking about hindrances to prayer and I'm saying disobedience is a hindrance to prayer. Proverbs 28 verse 9 says, If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

That sounds like a pretty big hindrance. So don't turn away your ear from hearing the law. Don't disregard the law. Don't disregard the words of Christ. Don't disregard it. Zechariah 7 and verse 13 says it this way, As I called and they would not hear.

So here's the Lord and He says, I'm calling to them and in context, basically He's calling them to repentance. I'm calling to them and they did not hear. So also they called and I would not hear, says the Lord.

Unconfessed Sin and a Guilty Conscience

Hindrances to prayer. Disobedience. The next one is unconfessed sin. The next hindrance to prayer, unconfessed sin. And this one is certainly well known. Psalm 66 and verse 18. Let's turn there. Psalm 66 and verse 18.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. I'll say it this way. If I intend to commit some sin, not yet committed, but I'm intending, I've got plans to commit it.

Or if I've not confessed some sin that's upon my conscience and I'm holding on to it. Or if my brother has something against me and I know it's not been made right. Or if I'm not willing to abandon all known sin and to be holy before God, then God would not have listened.

That's what David says. God wouldn't have listened. If I'm still trying to cover up my sin and hide it from God and pretend that it doesn't exist. Now listen to this. David knew all about this. He knew it from experience.

Take it from this man who'd spent months trying to keep up righteous appearance as the king of Israel. Take it from him. When he'd committed those sins against God with Bathsheba and Uriah. And he's telling us here.

Actually, he's speaking here at this passage to God. He's crying out to God. But he's saying it in our hearing. And he's saying this. On another occasion, basically, God, I know that if I'd clung to sin, if I had been purposing in my heart to keep sin concealed and to persist in my wickedness, that you would not hear me.

I know it. I know it because I've experienced that. I know that. I would have been shut out and left all alone if that is what had happened. And he goes on, verse 19, but truly God has listened. He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

He's saying if I had done those things, God wouldn't have listened. But he hadn't done those things, so God was listening. But he knows from experience what it is to go through this. And I'd say it this way.

Listen, I've seen this same thing. I've seen it in my own life at times. Now we're talking again about hindrances to prayer. Haven't you ever been praying to God and you feel like it's of no use at all because He's not even hearing your prayer?

Have you ever gone to God in prayer and had your conscience pricked by the Holy Spirit about some sin? And what do you do about it? Well, I'm telling you, if you don't get it right right then, God doesn't hear your prayers.

You can't just let this thing slide. You've got to deal with it. And this is true because God's a good Father. I mean, I can't give Jonas all the rewards and the loving affection that I would normally if he's in disobedience.

I don't help him at all. I can't go on with him as if nothing's wrong. And if I do, then I'm teaching him that sin's not serious, that it's not important for him to obey me or to be kind to others or whatever the particular sin might have been.

I don't help him at all if I just let things go. And beloved, there are some here in this room who I know have known this, have known it in the past. I know it. And when the sin's repented of, what can you say but that it's good to be walking in obedience with the Lord?

It's good. How good it is to be living under an open heaven once again. And you know this from experience. You've felt it. To know that you once again have true and open fellowship with God in prayer again.

What a blessing it is. But it's a fact. Unconfessed sin will keep you from God in prayer. It's not that you stop being His child, but that as a loving Father, He withdraws His listening and His sympathizing ear.

He just pulls it away. And God seems far off. Because He is far off. Because you've not dealt with sin. And until you come clean with Him and purpose to walk in obedience once again, He doesn't return that listening ear.

Albert Barnes said it this way, If there is still the love of evil in His heart, if He has some cherished purpose of iniquity, which He is not willing to abandon, if there is any one sin, however small or unimportant it may seem to be, which He is not willing to forsake, He cannot hope that God will hear His prayer.

He may be assured that He will not. All prayer to be acceptable to God must be connected with the purpose to forsake all sin. All prayer to be acceptable to God must be connected with the purpose to forsake all sin.

You can't have God and sin both. He won't tolerate a pet sin. I'll say it this way, and listen carefully to this, no sin is too small to hinder prayer. No sin is too small to hinder prayer. Don't fall into that trap and think, well, this thing is not really a big deal.

It's insignificant. I know it wasn't right, but it's really just no big deal. That's not the way it is. No sin is too small to hinder prayer. I don't mean that only perfect people will have their prayers answered.

If that was the case, the Lord Jesus Christ could have just, He could have just told us, I'm not going to bother to teach you anything about prayer. You'll never have a prayer answered in this life. That's not what He did.

He taught us about prayer. Our prayers can be answered. But we cannot expect God to hear our prayers if we have known sin that we have not repented of before Him. Again, very often we're tempted to say, well, such and such a thing is, you know, really wasn't a good thing that we did, but it's really no big deal.

And so we never come before God in tearful repentance and get it right. And that thing, I say, hinders our prayers. It's there. God's not forgotten it. Now, He's not going to send us to hell for it, but it matters to Him.

And as a Father, He's going to make sure we deal with it because He wants us to be holy and righteous as He is holy. That's His desire. What I'm saying is that those little things are exactly the kind of things that hinder prayer.

That's happened so much. You can't just let those things go. Those are the kinds of things that kill prayer and keep your words weak and unable to penetrate the ceiling above your closet. That's why. Little things like that.

Little sins. May we learn not to excuse our sin, beloved. Not to excuse it. Not to treat it as a small thing because God doesn't. It's a big, big thing. We've not learned this practice of excusing our little sins from God.

That's not where we've learned it. And it needs to be repented of and forsaken. Now, the other thing under this heading of unconfessed sin that's a little bit different, but it's very similar is this thing of a guilty conscience will hinder your prayers.

A guilty conscience. Now, you only have a guilty conscience because you've got unconfessed sin, but I just want to treat it a little bit. Proverbs 28 and verse 13 says, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper.

But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Are we concealing our sins before a holy God? Are we trying to keep the secret sin, a secret from Him who knows the every desire and intention of our heart?

Are we trying to keep it secret even from Him? Oh, may we be a people who are not defiled by an evil conscience. It is a provision in Christ. Think of this. It's one of the things He purchased and He died on the cross to give us.

It's a remarkable provision to be able to walk up before God, to come before Him with a conscience absolutely free of sin and defilement and shame. He's purchased that for us. That's a privilege that we have in Christ.

Free from all sin. Free from defilement. But you cannot know that. You cannot experience it and enjoy it unless you have come clean with God about your sin. You can't experience that. It's a far off. It's something you read about.

It's a dead letter on a page unless you come totally clean with God about sin. You're not meant to be far off. We can't know this unless we've purposed in our hearts to make things right with God and make things right with others.

Now, God has said it. And this wise man here in Proverbs is relating it to us. It's simply a fact, beloved. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Confession before the Lord. So there's no way we're going to obtain the mercy we seek in prayer. I mean, what do you pray about when you pray to God? Don't you very often ask for mercy? Ask for grace?

You ask for help? You ask the Lord for yourself and others? There's no way you're going to obtain it. He says, He who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. So confess them. Forsake them. It's got to be let go.

There's no way we're going to obtain the mercy we seek in prayer if at the same time we're unwilling to confess our sin before our God. Turn with me to 1 John 3. Again, still dealing with this very same thing of a guilty conscience.

1 John 3. Verses 21 and 22. Remarkable words. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive. If our hearts do not condemn us. How can we come before God if our own hearts condemn us? Honestly, how can we come before God?

Before the most holy and the righteous God of heaven and pretend that we have no sin when our own hearts tell us otherwise? If we cannot deal honestly with God about our sins, then God will not accept us.

That's just what He says. And you can say all you want to that as Christians, your standing before God is not determined by your having confessed every sin in your life. You can say that all you want to, but I'll tell you what, that's not what the Bible says.

I mean, it's true in a sense. If you're a Christian, you aren't going to lose your standing before God every time you commit a sin until you confess it. You're not in danger of going to hell until you confess your sin.

But I'll tell you something else, if our heart is nagging us about some wrong thing that we've done, if God's Spirit's convicting us of sin, but if in the face of that, in spite of what is happening there, in spite of our own conviction, in spite of our own heart condemning us, if that's all happening and in the very face of that, we continue on and we talk with God as if there's no sin, as if there's nothing wrong, then we're only deceiving ourselves to think that God accepts us anyway.

We're simply deceiving ourselves. If that becomes a pattern in your life so that you could say that it's how you live, then you aren't a Christian at all. That's how dangerous this thing is. I mean, isn't that what John says in 1 John 1 .8?

Let's just turn a page over. 1 John 1 .8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If that's the way you live, the truth isn't in you. Christians keep short records with God and we come before Him and we confess our sin and we get things right.

And many times, if you persist in this and you haven't been doing it, the reason God's not hearing your prayers is for this very reason. Part of what it is to be a Christian is to come quickly before the Lord and restore the relationship that's been damaged by sin.

That's part of what it is. If you have an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ and if you have any kind of love for Him in your heart at all, if you get any enjoyment and satisfaction at all out of your relationship with Him, then you simply...

Don't you? You've just got to get things right before Him. You've got to come to Him. I mean, it's that way in other relationships. You just can't stand for things to be bad between you. You've got to come and make it right.

And this is the way it is for the Christian. Don't think that you can get by telling God that you don't have anything to confess. You can't. If your own heart condemns you, you cannot. God will separate from you.

He'll pull back His blessing of joy and blessing of gladness. David knew it. And David said in Psalm 32, listen to this, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. He's groaning, he's praying all day long.

He's wasting away. He says, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

That's all there together. I mean, it's like he's wasting away and then he says, I can't stand it anymore. I'm just going to confess with God. And God just forgave him. And there was access again. And he could come before the Lord.

So restoration is only as far away as our confession and as our honesty before God. If you feel far off, just confess before Him. Come before Him and deal honestly with your sin. 1 John 1 .9, the very next verse says what?

If we confess our sins, He's faithful. He's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So just come. Beloved, if your prayers are not effectual, if you cannot say that God's answering your prayers, this may well be the one reason.

And I'll just remind you of the passage again in 1 John 3, 21 and 22. We just had read it. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God in whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

So unconfessed sin and a guilty conscience hinder prayers. We've got to come clean with God. Now, another thing. Poor relationships. Poor relationships will hinder your prayers with God. And I've kind of got three headings here.

The first one is selfishness, then unforgiveness, and then the last one is strife in the home. Selfishness, unforgiveness, and strife in the home. Poor relationships will hinder your prayers. Now, I mentioned this thing about selfishness when we looked at the subject of intercession.

And kind of what I said, and really all I want to say about it again is just this, that we cannot expect God to care for us and to move on our behalf if we ourselves are not moved by the needs of others.

If you're the kind of person that you can look upon people who need help and you're not moved and you're just selfish, you cannot expect that God will look upon you and be moved by your needs and the fact that you need help.

Selfishness is one of the biggest reasons prayers go unanswered. In Proverbs 21 and verse 13, we read this. And you can turn there if you want, but I have another one that I particularly want us to turn to.

But Proverbs 21, 13, we read this. Whoever, whoever, and you're one of the whoever's, whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call and not be answered. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call and not be answered.

Selfishness, a lack of love, will hinder our prayers. And in Philippians 2, 4, we read this. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. I mean, you're commanded to be looking out for other people's interests, to be concerned with them, and not to be selfish.

Generosity, Forgiveness, and Luke 6:37-38

Okay, well turn with me to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6, verses 37 and 38. A remarkable, remarkable passage. Luke 6, 37 and 38. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Now look at verse 38. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Now I'll say it this way. In light of verse 38, you cannot possibly think, if you take His words just for what they say, that God will measure out generously to you in prayer if you're stingy with everyone else when they ask for things from you.

If you're stingy, you cannot think that God's going to pour out an abundant measure with you. He just says, for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. So you can't be a selfish person who hoards things to yourself and wants everything for yourself and you're not willing to give to others and to be generous and to measure out to others and still think God's going to measure out and give to you.

Selfishness will hinder your prayers. It will hinder God answering your prayers. And one of the reasons for this, of course, again, is that God wants us to be generous and compassionate people just like He is.

And because He wants that for us, He seeks to make us that way. He seeks to make us generous people and compassionate people and tender people. And He does it a couple different ways. The first way that He does it is He simply allows us to experience it.

He lavishes His grace and His kindness upon us. He pours out His blessings on us and His favor. As Christians, we can all say that we bask in the light of His grace, that we swim in an ocean of the love of God.

That's a fact for us as Christians. But in some cases, the Lord will shut off the flow of blessings. He will shut it off. Why? In order to get us to realize that we've not been generous like He's been with us.

We realize, what is wrong? Why aren't we receiving these things from the Lord? And we read it in this text. It says, well, with the measure that you use, it's going to be given to you. And so we repent.

And we come to Him seeking what went wrong. And He puts His finger on our own self-centeredness and our own selfishness. And He says, repent. Be like your father. And He's got us in discipline. And so that happens.