Key Verse: 1 Peter 3:12 

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 

In yesterday’s sermon about God’s expectations of those in a relationship with Him, we were also reminded that we walk before God and He sees our every move. Here in 1 Peter we are once again remedied of the same thing. Here however, we see that God watches both the wicked the and the righteous, while also seeing the reward for being righteous, and the punishment for being wicked. For those who walk righteously before the Lord, their prayers are heard. Does this mean that if we sin, God literally cannot hear our prayers? Absolutely not. God is God and of course He hears every prayer, the idea here with God’s ears being open to the prayers of the righteous is that He hears and He answers. We should never expect God to answer our prayers when we are living a life of consistent sin. For those who live in sin they should expect exactly what the text says. They should expect God’s face to be against them. What does this mean? It means that God does not look favorably on those who live in sin. He grimaces with anger and disappointment as He observes those who do wicked deeds with no conviction or desires to change. 

What about you friend? Is God listening and responding to your prayers? Or is God against you? All of this is based upon your own actions. When you live in sin, you become an enemy of God and enemy of the cross. The good news its never too late to repent and once again fall under the favorable eyes of God!