Sin Renders Prayer Useless

Job 27:8-9 For what is the hope of the godless . . . Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

Job 35:12-13 There they cry, but no one gives answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.

Psalms 66:18 If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.

Proverbs 1:25-30 but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you . . . Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. . . . because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of the Lord . . .

Note how this matches Jesus’ teaching:

Matthew 25:11-12 Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ [This is virtually a prayer] . . . But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

More Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 1:45 You returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you.

2 Samuel 22:42 They looked, but there was no one to save; even to the Lord, but he didn’t answer them.

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 21:13 Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

Proverbs 28:9 He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Isaiah 1:15-16 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. . . .

Isaiah 58:4-9  . . . You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high. Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? . . . Then you will call, and the Lord will answer . . .

Isaiah 59:2  . . . your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Jeremiah 11:10-11 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words . . . Therefore the Lord says, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.

Jeremiah 14:10,12 The Lord says to this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet . . . When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them . . .

Lamentations 3:8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

Lamentations 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

Ezekiel 8:17-18  . . . for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Hosea 5:6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they won’t find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.

Jonah 2:8 Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

Zechariah 7:13 It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said the Lord of Armies

Micah 3:4 Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.

Matthew 5:23-24 If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

John 9:31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.

James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

1 Peter 3:7 You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered.

(Emphasis mine)