Avoiding Potholes in Your Prayer Journey

A Meditation on Prayer from 1 Peter

The first letter of the Apostle Peter is filled with great truth. Among those truths is his teaching on prayer. Specifically, he teaches believers to live in such a manner that their prayers are not negatively effected.

How is your prayer life? Does it seem like the connection between you and the Lord is broken or hit and miss at best? We should be able to enjoy sweet fellowship with our Lord. After all we are taught in the Scriptures that God delights when his people come to him in prayer.

In the five chapters of 1 Peter, the apostle writes twice about prayer. Read carefully his words given by the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

—1 Peter 3:7

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

—1 Peter 4:7

The first instance is given with regards to the husband in a marriage. So there is special application to the man in the marriage relationship. But the teaching seems to lead into the second word in the fourth chapter.

I have included the word potholes in the title because the word translated unhindered in 3:7 relates to a road on which a journey is made. To have an unhindered road was to have a road free of impediments or obstacles. Whether the journey was on foot, a horse, or on some sort of wheeled vehicle, obstacles or broken pieces of the road would function as an impediment for the journey. Today drivers are well aware of potholes that make our automobile journeys more difficult.

So what does this have to do with our prayers? Well, wouldn’t it be nice to travel on a straight and smooth roadway when it comes to talking to the Lord? Let’s try to understand what Peter is saying in these two verses.

First of all, let’s understand what he is not talking about. He is not talking about prayers that are birthed out of a life without any difficulties. I challenge you to read through the entire five chapters of this letter and observe how difficult the Christian life is as described by Peter.

He assumes that since our Lord suffered greatly on the cross, that we who are followers of Jesus will also suffer. He describes this life as one of a fiery trial (1 Peter 4:12). Therefore it would be wrong to think that if God would simply give me an easy life, I would be a better praying person. No! The trials are not the potholes. Instead these trials should drive us to seek the Lord in prayer.

In the verse about the husband (3:7), the general instruction is for the husband to live with his wife in an understanding way. A prayer journey that avoids the potholes is one that begins in our minds. As a man thinks, so does he pray.

In 4:7 Peter uses the word sober-minded. Again, notice the mental aspect related to your prayers. To be sober-minded is to have a mind free of intoxicants. Don’t let the poisons of your fleshly passions or of the worldly model pollute your mind. These will definitely cause you to hit a big pothole in your prayer journey.

Also, do not let the lying devil convince you of the folly of prayer. He might lie to you about how holy and gracious our God is. He might lie to you about how a sinner like you should never pray.

Don’t let these things be your mindset. Know that the Lord has bid you to come into his presence as his child.

Husbands, your mind needs to be right with regard to your wife. She’s not perfect, but just like you she is a recipient of God’s good grace.

Avoiding the potholes includes more than exercising mental control. It also includes acting on the truths you have accepted in your mind. Do you see the connection of the mental to your actions in these verses?

The understanding in 3:7 leads to the showing of honor to the wife. Thought leads to action.

In 4:7 sober-minded is linked with self-control. What we think is linked to what we do. And all of this is linked to our prayers.

I better wrap this up. If the path of your prayers seems consistently jarred by hitting deep potholes, take a look at whether you are sober-minded and self-controlled. Are you thinking as you should? Are you acting as you should? If not, your first prayer might need to be one of confession.