Monday, June 08, 2026
When is it right to refuse to pray with someone ?
When it is wrong to pray with someone: Isaiah 1:15 “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood." We should refuse to pray with someone when: A. They deliberately lie: such as saying “in my quiet time today the reading was..”. Someone had used that line three times in six months with me. Either he hadn’t read his Bible since the start of the year or he was reading thirty chapters a day to get back to the same passage three times in six months (he had already admitted publicly at a men’s breakfast earlier that year that he had not been reading his Bible regularly). This is an Acts 5 situation where Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. Consent to pray with them is consent to their act of deceit. B. They don’t care about God’s will only about power and control which they choose not to relinquish, “as this gives their life meaning and purpose.” C. They are divisive and oppressive to others. D. They aren’t living according to the principle of prayer in 1 Peter 3:7 ESV - 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. Such prayer together would involve someone in complicity in their sins.
