Personal iniquity that comes in the form of religious service can hinder our prayer life.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (II Cor. 4:7). I mention this form of iniquity to call each of us into a personal internal exam of our religious service. How often have we gone through the formality in our confessions, worship, praise and shown indifference in supplication, so that when the exercise is over, we cannot honestly declare that we really meant what we acknowledged? Two sources can influence this within our hearts and life actions. The first is God and the second our own motives. This is when we allow ourselves to go through the diligent religious formality of all we may do in church or our prayer life and it has become a religious formality. If our religious exercises have progressed only to this stage then our prayer life is hindered. We may even be praying and acting like everything is wonderful when in reality we have not given of ourselves completely to God. Why should we evaluate this area of our life? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). Lord help us not to just have the outward appearance of Christian worship and praise yet our hearts are not acting like “all things are become new.”
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