BIBLE BREAKFAST (#337) 02/25/20
“When a prayer can be an abomination…”
? Proverbs 28:9 “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.”
▪️If such a strict definition was not written in the Bible regarding prayer being an abomination, I would probably never put those 2 words together.
▪️But apparently this can happen where “prayer is an abomination” and this applies to the “one who turns away his ear from hearing the law”.
▪️Abomination- not pleasant, disgusting, vile (disgusting words, actions, things)
▪️It is worth remembering what else the Bible refers to as an abomination in order to understand the meaning of this word and God’s attitude towards abominable things:
– Occultism: Deuteronomy 18:9-12
– Spoiled sacrifice: Deuteronomy 17:1
– Idols: Deuteronomy 7:25
– All kinds of debauchery: Leviticus 18:22
– This is not all the things that the Bible calls an abomination (disgusting, not pleasant, unacceptable) in God’s eyes. However, I think this is enough examples to give a clear definition of abomination and to understand God’s attitude towards it, especially in regard to “prayer as an abomination”
▪️The reason prayer can be an abomination in God’s eyes is when a person prays to God but at the same time is “one who turns away his ear from hearing the law”.
▪️”Turns away his ear” in a different translation is “to close your ears”. This means you are intentionally not listening or living according to God’s word, His laws, His commandments, but are demanding God to lend you a helping hand.
▪️In other words, you say, “I don’t need you, I don’t need your rules or your definition on how to live. I only need your strength, your help, your blessings, your answers to my demands”.
▪️This is as if a son or daughter say to their parents, “I don’t need your discipline, your instruction, your rules. I only need your money”.
▪️God says that the prayers of these kind of people are disgusting and not pleasant to Him because this kind of attitude shows Him complete disregard to His word and makes nothing more than demands of Him.
▪️Prayer and God’s word are connected and unbreakable. Having the desire to have a conversation with God, to ask and receive something from Him, but not desiring, at the same time, to listen to God’s word and live by it, a person cannot expect anything from God. Moreover, this person should know that this kind of demanding attitude before God is an abomination in His eyes.
▪️One author said very accurately, “If you do not have this valuable gift of love, if your heart is cold like ice and you live for yourself and are only busy with yourself, and a feat of the soul is not attracting you, then your life on this earth is in vain, my friend, and your years fly by without benefit and your prayers are not pleasing to the Creator, as are your actions”.
? Have a nice day to all! (pastor Valeriy Bayko).