access and generate is momentarily choked off and shorted
out. We’ve compromised the system. We’ve created a
bottleneck. We’re leaking oil, leaking power. We end up, in
practical terms, living like the double-minded man in the New
Testament book of James, who the Bible says “should not
expect to receive anything from the Lord” because he’s
“unstable in all his ways” (James 1:7–8 HCSB).
One of the psalm writers painfully summarized it this way:
“If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Ps.
66:18). It’s not because God’s hand is “so short that it cannot
save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your
iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does
not hear” (Isa. 59:1–2). Separation. That’s what sin creates.
Which is why the enemy is dead set on crafting temptations for
our lives. He knows that the “effectual fervent prayer” that
James 5:16 (KJV) says “availeth much” contains parameters.
Prayers that have power come from a person in pursuit of
righteous living.
Yes, righteousness matters.