yeah , the word "hear" is not really accurate. maybe responds or even pays attention to your prayers would be a better way to state it.
how bout deese?


Who have personal and selfish motives.


You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:3).

Who remain in sin.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear (Isaiah 59:2).

Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him (John 9:31).

Who offer unworthy service to God.

"You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled You?' In that you say, 'The table of the LORD is to be despised.' But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts. "But now will you not entreat God's favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts.

Who forsake God.

Thus says the Lord to this people: "Thus they have loved to wander; They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, And punish their sins." Then the Lord said to me, "Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence (Jeremiah 14:10-12).

Who reject God's call.

Because I [Wisdom] have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke.... Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me (Proverbs 1:24-25, 28).

Who will not heed God's law.

One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination (Proverbs 28:9).

"But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen," says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 7:11-13).

Who turn a deaf ear to the cry of the poor.

Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, Will also cry himself and not be heard. (Proverbs 21:13).

Who are violent.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15; see also 59:2-3).

Who worship idols.

Therefore thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal. So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble." (Jeremiah 11:11-14; see also Ezekiel 8:15-18).

Who have no faith.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7).


Who are proud of heart.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

Who are self-righteous.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess." And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:11-14).

Who mistreat God's people.

You have also given me the necks of my enemies, So that I destroyed those who hated me. They cried out, but there was none to save; Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them (Psalm 18:40-41).

You who hate good and love evil; Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones; Who also eat the flesh of My people, Flay their skin from them, Break their bones, And chop them in pieces, Like meat for the pot, Like flesh in the caldron. Then they will cry to the Lord, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds (Micah 3:2-4).

Some goodies to ponder no?

It is clear God answers and hears prayers based on many conditions, we are foolish to think he hears and answers all.
Nabster

This is my favorite...

1Peter 3:7 (NLT)

7In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. If you don't treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard.

Yeah!

i figured you ladies would pounce upon that one!

Okay, so God hears all prayer whether you are righteous or not, but He doesn't acknowledge the some prayers...I'm in agreement with that, but now back to the defenition of righteousness.

When have you achieved "righteous" status? Is it as soon as you accept Christ? Or is something you do...?

right·eous adj.

1: Morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.

2: In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment.

3: Morally justifiable: righteous anger. See Synonyms at moral.

Hope this helps gang...
from a website i copied//pasted awhile back...


"And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness." [Deuteronomy 6:25]

The word 'righteous' in all its forms (righteousness, etc) occurs over 125 times in the NIV translation of the Psalms, if you want to really look at what the Bible has to say on this subject, as well as Proverbs 10-16. In most of those references, righteousness is an essential part of God's character, and the righteous are those that follow God's laws.

Humans are sinners, true, but the righteous confess their sins, and learn from that. However, "Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD." [Isaiah 26:10]

Thus, righteousness is in part a learned trait that we pick up after learning of the grace that God extends to us in forgiving our sins. And after that, "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." [Isaiah 32:17]

No one can get to heaven by righteous acts alone.

God's law is not something that can be broken in small ways, and he'll still let us into heaven. On the contrary, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." [James 2:10]

Thus, any one sin can and will separate a human from God. Righteous works won't get us any credit back in God's books:" All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." [Isaiah 64:6]

and "If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it." [Ezekiel 33:18]

"know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified." [Galations 2:16]

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." [1 Peter 2:24]

and "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"" [Galations 2:21] That price has already been paid centuries ago, and there's nothing you can do about it, except to live in thanks and humility towards God and follow his laws to the best of your ability.

Love you guys, good discussion...
Nabster

If I might add...

Paul wrote to "Put on the whole armor of God." The second component listed is the breastplate of righteousness (following loins being girded with truth).

I point it out because man has no righteousness. We must take God's righteousness upon ourselves. Our best is nothing but filthy rags to Him. To me, it means, taking Him upon ourselves and the things of Him upon ourselves. This must begin with a repentant spirit. David wrote, also in Psalms, "... if I regardeth any iniquity in my heart my Lord would not hear me."

Remember: It's his righteousness, his earth, his money, his body... none of it is ours. We are just its stewards.

the bible has two righteousness's.

One that is given to us, it is a gift and by this gift we always stand before God as perfect.

Because of this great gift, we work on our own righteousness out of thanks for the righteousness he has given us.

In the judgement we stand before God in the righteousness of Christ and not in our own righteousness. That is why we have no fear.
That is why we work on our righteousness, just because God loves us that much.

Our righteousness does not get us into heaven.
The righteousness we have been given does, and that is God's gift to us.

Phillipians 3:9"... and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

So achieving righteousness is somthing given to you and you simply recieve it and believe it. Once you have done that, you are perfect forever in God's eyes Hebrews 10:14 "because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy"
So once you are made perfect by simply believing it, then comes: being made holy, because it becomes your desire to be Holy out of thanks to God for making you perfect.

God hears all your prayers when you believe he has made you perfect (righteous) But he doesn't always say yes to your prayers and sometimes he makes us wait for the answer, and sometimes, we don't see the answer. And if we treasure sin in our heart, he will not hear us either.

Just remember, he always does what is for your good. In ALL things.

Am I righteous?

Well you could be real easily. Believe, confess, repent. Viola! You're forgiven, saved through Grace and made righteous! Souhds easy, huh? You can do it!!!!!

Hmmm...dare we start the debate again?

Kidding...and I know I'm not righteous...and don't believe, and haven't confessed, won't repent...won't be forgiven, and never played the Viola...

Debate!! Who, me??? Surely you jest, sir.

Oh, and

yes

you

will

!!!

You should really learn the viola, there's lots of good music we could duet on

I submit that we are not righteous, bring no righteousness to the relationship (relationship with God, through Christ), produce no righteousness on our own and are completely unable to ad to the righteousness given by God. I think there may be a misunderstanding of the Phillippians ref. and the others but I will only use the Phil. for time. Simply put, the law revealed the need man has, that man alone can not live up to the standard of the law. Being found is quiet possibly a legal term, as a judge will find a defendant. When we stand before God and show our righteousness, our good deeds to settle the bill for our bad. By that, we would never settle the bill. We are covered by the blood of Christ, we are covered by His righteousness.

Preach it

Our righteousness is as filthy rags, luckily a way was made

I was reading through the topic wondering if we use too much "Christian-ese" in our terminology, but it looks like it was explained pretty well