Hindered Prayer Part 2

The only hindrance to prayer is specified in 1 Peter 3:7 - "...so that your prayers will not be hindered."

I always wondered why our prayers can be hindered, since we are IN Christ and that God always hears us (because of Christ).

The context of 1 Peter 3:7 must be read properly.

You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a FELLOW HEIR of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. - 1 Peter 3:7 (emphasis added)

While the epistles of Peter were written to both Jews and Gentiles, the primary audience was still the Jews. In the Jewish culture, women were deemed as less superior than men. In the first place, there was gender separation in the synagogues where women were forbidden to sit with the men, who were deemed as superior.

Peter, in the wisdom of God, wrote in that context and pointed the husbands to this truth ---- 'show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life...' To be a fellow heir of the grace of life is to be of equal position (sons and daughters) in the eyes of God.

To treat oneself as more superior is pride. It is no wonder Peter said, 'so that your prayers will not be hindered.'

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:5 - God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Pride boasts about oneself - "I am better and more superior than you." The attitude of pride is either "God should hear me more than you" or "I can depend on my own effort and behaviour, instead of God."

This is what happened to the Pharisee in Luke 18.

Luke 18:11-14 - The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat 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 who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Is there a hindrance to prayer? Yes, and perhaps there is only one ------ Pride. That is why satan fell in the beginning.