Tone Deaf God

Psalms 66:18 (KJV) If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

(Proverbs 25 also read)

I know you don’t want to hear this.  I know you don’t wanna admit it exists.  In spite of that, it still says what it says.  There are certain conditions in which God will not listen.

This is a scary thought so let’s try and break it down a little bit.  I looked at the different words using my software and the word “regard” is most often translated “see”.  So it has the idea of if I see iniquity, God will not hear.  “Iniquity” is a word which is different from the basic word “sin” but I don’t see anything significant to break it down for me.

On the one side because we know that we have a tendency towards sin it can’t mean that.  If it did, God would never listen.  So it must mean that if we take the time to examine ourselves and see that we are living in a condition of rebellion against God and we still try to pray without repentance, God will not listen.

So?  Since I believe that God is always wanting to hear us and always wanting us to come into His presence, I have to conclude that this is an admonition to us to take the time to consider our hearts, and to think about my love for God.  He will listen if we are sincere, which involves repentance and honesty with ourselves.