God hears the prayers of those people who truly want to know God and who want to turn their hearts to Him. God cannot be fooled. People can be fooled, but God cannot be fooled. If a proud person prays and asks God for forgiveness, God will not give it to them. God only hears the prayers of those whose hearts truly want to follow God, and those who truly love God. God hears the prayers of those who know they are sinners. God does not listen to the prayers of forgiveness from people who are proud.
God turns away the proud
When a proud person comes before God and asks Him for forgiveness, God turns away from them. God does not listen to people who think they are righteous and can earn their way into heaven by their good works: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6).
God is against the people who are proud, but He is with and for the people who are humble and gentle. God listens to those who pray and ask God to forgive them. God does not listen to those who think they are righteous because of their good works.
Proud people do not think they sin
Proud people think they are perfect. Proud people do not think that they sin so they do not want to ask God to forgive them. They think they are perfect.
“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee (a proud person) stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
“But the tax collector (a humble person) stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Luke 18:9-14.
God does not listen to proud people because proud people do not think they need God. Proud people pray, but they believe God will listen to them because they are so great. But God does not listen to us because we think we are great.
“For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you…” – Deuteronomy 4:31.
“The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.” – Psalm 116:5.
God hears the humble
A person who is humble knows that God has all the power over them and over all the earth. A humble person trusts in God and believes that God will help them in everything that they do. A proud person thinks they know everything. They think that they are very smart and have the answers to everything.
To be humble means to submit to God’s authority and to give up your own desires and thoughts of what it is you want to do. To be humble means to do what God wants you to do and to do it the way He wants you to do it.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” – James 4:10.
“So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.” – 1 Peter 5:6.
To humble yourself means to ask God to forgive you. To humble yourself means that you know you are weak and do not have the answers. So if you want God to accept your prayers then humble yourself before Him.
The proud will not go to heaven
Satan is very proud. He use to be a good angel but then he became proud and fought against God. Satan wanted to sit on the throne of God. But Satan was cast out of heaven because He became proud and loved himself more than he loved God.
“In your great pride you claim, ‘I am a god!…But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast that you are a god….You will die like an outcast at the hands of foreigners. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”…“You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God…. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you….I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings…You have come to a terrible end, and you will exist no more.” – Ezekiel 28:2-19.
Admit you are a sinner and ask God to forgive you
If you want to go to heaven you cannot think that your good works are so great that God will allow you into heaven. “All of us have become like one who is unclean. All our right and good works are like dirty pieces of cloth. And all of us dry up like a leaf. Our sins take us away like the wind.” – Isaiah 64:6.
All of us are sinners before a most holy God. God is the one who can forgive us of our sins and allow us to go to heaven. If we humble ourselves before God and pray and ask Him to forgive us, then God who is in heaven will hear our prayers, and forgive us.
But if we think that we are so holy that our good works will get us into heaven, then God will resist us, because God resists the proud. The proud cannot get into heaven because the way to get into heaven is to bow your heart and pray and ask God to forgive you for the many sins you have done.
Proud people do not think they have done many sins, so proud people will not bow down their hearts and pray to God.