Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV):  Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Many people have strong opinions as to why God doesn’t act more strongly to fix the ills of this world.  And those opinions often form a false dichotomy:  that God is either too weak to fix things, or that He just doesn’t care.  But God’s arm is not too short to save His people.  He can still perform the same mighty miracles that He did at the Exodus.  He is still the God who can create a whole universe with a word from His lips.  He has not aged a single moment in the thousands of years that have elapsed since He called forth light out of the darkness, so He has not grown weak or had a lessening of His power.

So does He not care enough to fix our broken world that people are born into?  He cares so much that He sacrificed His only Son on the cross to save all mankind, to redeem all nature, and to destroy the works of the devil.  He cares enough to be completely involved in drawing all people to Jesus, and in commanding all of His people all over the world to GO and make disciples of all nations.  And for those who do go, He provides them with divine power to be witnesses of Jesus, and of all that He can do to change the world.

But, as I said, these two options form a false dichotomy that ignores the real answer to the question:  What is keeping the sweeping changes that God wants to see (and paid a monstrously high price to see) from happening?  It is sin, just as it always has been.  The sins of God’s people, their unrighteousness, their self-centeredness, and their compromise with the world, have separated us from God, and have closed His ears to our prayers.  Prayers go unanswered not because God is uncaring or unable, but because they are being prayed by people to whom He will not listen.  If someone is living a life contrary to God’s precepts and character, He will not listen or answer.  If someone is loving the world and the things in it, if they cherish their possessions and their entertainments more than they cherish God, finding hours to sit at a ball game or in front of a television set, but having a hard time finding even a single hour each day to spend with Him, then He will not hear their hastily said prayers.

Make no mistake, it is the prayer of a genuinely righteous person that is powerful and effective at changing things, and no other.  (James 5:16b)  The only prayer that God will hear and answer from one not living in accordance with His commands is the heart-felt prayer of repentance and surrender.

Father, this is a hard teaching, but its truth is shouted all through Your word, and is reinforced by Your actions all through the ages.  Forgive us for taking You for granted, for expecting answers to our prayers when we don’t have You and Your will at the very top of our agendas and our lives.  Help us.  Change us.  Move us into the right place, so that we CAN pray prayers that are powerful and effective.  Amen.