RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

There are two heart attitudes that will rob a person of power in prayer – guilt and bitterness. Guilt is a result of our doing wrong, while bitterness normally creeps into our hearts when we’ve been wronged by others. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He dealt with both of these critical heart issues. He taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12 NIV).
There are two types of guilt – false guilt and true guilt. False guilt comes from the accusations of Satan. He tells us that we’re no good, or that we’re not worthy. He tries to get us to think, “How can you pray? You’re not worthy to pray.” Of course, we’re not worthy enough to pray. There’s only One who is worthy – and His name is Jesus! There’s only One who is complete in His goodness – Jesus! So, we’ll never be able to achieve worthiness. We can only fall at the feet of the Savior and worship Him as the worthy One. We don’t come to God because of anything that we’ve done. We’re able to come into God’s presence because of what Christ has done for us.
Satan’s accusations are always general in nature, while a genuine conviction of the Holy Spirit is very specific. Often we feel guilty because we are guilty. There’s something in our lives that’s not pleasing to God. It’s impossible to repent of “not being worthy enough to pray,” because we’ll never be worthy. Therefore, when Satan tries to lay a ton of false guilt upon us, we need only to reject those feelings of unworthiness and fall at the feet of Jesus and claim His grace. We must understand that the throne of God is a throne of grace. We can only approach a holy God because we’ve tasted the grace of God.
However, there’s a second kind of guilt. It’s when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and such conviction is always very specific. Thus, this conviction will always lead to repentance and, ultimately, forgiveness. When God convicts us about something wrong in our lives, the purpose isn’t to leave us on a guilt trip, but rather to remove the sin from our lives and bring forgiveness to our hearts. The purpose of God’s conviction is always redemptive.
There’s only one way to deal with this kind of guilt. Confess and repent of it. In John’s epistle, he says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8,9 NIV). Confession requires honesty. We must be willing to admit what we’ve done wrong as well as turn from the wrong. It’s much more than just saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s crying out, “I’ve been wrong.”
I’ve discovered that the most difficult thing for many Christians is to say, “I’ve been wrong.” But such confession goes to the heart of what it takes to have power in prayer. The Bible says, “But He gives us more grace.” That is why Scripture says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6 NIV). A proud heart will never have power in prayer, but a humble heart releases all the resources of God because it touches the very heart of God. When we see God in His holiness, we will be driven to our knees in confession of sin. Once we’ve been completely honest, broken and repentant, we’ll experience that amazing grace. Oh, what joy and power lies in such praying. Pray with a holy heart. Pray with a humble heart. And stand back and watch God work.