IMPACT COTN

Buckle up as we work through the book of Romans, a tough and convicting chapter🙏🙌

*Day 31 Devotion-Your Prayers Can Be Hindered by Your Unforgiveness*

WHAT GOD SAYS:

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“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25_

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the National Day of Prayer in Washington D.C. on Mark 11:25: The Greatest Hindrance to God Answering Our Prayers. Do you recognize Christ’s dramatic connection between prayer and unforgiveness? Jesus makes it explicitly clear, that when you pray, the first thing you do is to ensure you have no unforgiveness or God won’t forgive you—and certainly not answer your prayers!

Years ago a small congregation in our city planned on a church wide prayer meeting. In preparation, the pastor arrived at the church at 6:30 p.m. to open the building. He placed his key in the lock, turned the k**b and pulled on the door. To his surprise, as he tugged on the unlocked door, he could not get the door to open more than six inches. By the time 7:00 p.m. arrived, all of the congregation were milling around, awaiting to get into their church to pray. Finally, the pastor gave the door a huge yank, and the door flung open. But the door wasn’t the biggest problem he would face that night.

Upon entering the building, he discovered there was no electricity. To figure out why, he and a few of the men took a flashlight and went down in the basement and looked at the old power box. What he discovered was one of the circuit breakers had been removed from the box. So that night there was no prayer because there was no power in the building.

Sadly, all of this was the doing of a bitter church member. He had locked the door from the inside of the building with a chain, and had stolen the ancient non-replaceable circuit breaker.

Days went by and the church was without power. Finally, in walks the thief and gives the pastor the circuit breaker. He was remorseful and begged the pastor and others for forgiveness. They forgave. They took the circuit breaker, placed it in the box and power was restored to the church.

The moral of the story: Just like this man’s bitterness and unforgiveness hurt his church—unforgiveness in our own hearts has the power to hurt us. It robs us of seeing the power of answered prayer and experiencing God’s incredible miracles in our lives.

Dube Neighbourhood Watch@followersNYI AlumniNYI GAUTENG