Prayer Requires Caring for the Poor

1986

Number 11 prerequisite for answered prayer is in Proverbs 21:13: “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and will not be answered.” Essentially, what it’s saying is (and in 1 John 3 when it talks about answered prayer it says the same thing) if we fail to care for the poor, then God isn’t going to hear our prayers.

I’d like you to think about what you have personally done for the poor, for the needy lately. I’m not talking about putting a dollar bill in a wicker basket. I’m talking about what you are personally doing from your heart to interact with the needy. If you are not doing anything, if you close your ears to the call of the needy which is all around us, then God will close His ears to you, too. That’s one of the things Jesus did beyond anything else in all the time He was here was He reached out to the oppressed. He preached Good News to the poor. He lifted up the oppressed and gave them satisfaction. That’s what we’ve got to do if we’re the Body of Christ. So care for the poor and the oppressed, reach out to those people if you truly want to have answers to your prayer.