Prayer

Answered Prayer

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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 ESV

This morning as I was beginning to pray, I realized I didn’t need to pray for my father anymore. My first prayer for my dad was answered when he received Christ as his Savior. As the years passed, I prayed for him to be guided and helped by God. As Dad grew older, I often asked for healing and strength. After my stepmom slipped into eternity, I prayed for comfort. When he chose to live alone, I prayed for him to experience God’s presence. This morning as I looked back, I suddenly realized that every prayer has been answered along the way. Dad is now healed and young again! He is no longer lonely, confused or tired. He found every answer on the other side of heaven’s door.

Today as we pray, Jesus teaches us that we can be assured that our prayers will be answered, because of God’s promise. When we ask, He promises we will receive. When we truly seek, He guarantees we will truly find. When we knock, knock eagerly, knowing that our Father in heaven already has his hand on the doorknob waiting to open! Prayer is the longing that God has put in our hearts for a world that reflects His purpose. Be faithful. Don’t give up on prayer. We may forget what we have asked, but God remembers and hears and answers prayer. It doesn’t matter what it looks like now. One day we will see that every one of our prayers has been answered: And so much more!

Make my life a prayer to You
I wanna do what You want me to
No empty words and no white lies
No token prayers, no compromise
I wanna shine the light You gave
Through Your Son You sent to save us
From ourselves and our despair
It comforts me to know
You're really there
Make My Life a Prayer by Keith Green

Our Father

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Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 ESV

Though many times we come to the Lord’s Prayer with a mixture of awe and duty, “Our Father, who is in Heaven,” begins with a line full of hope. It is hope because we are praying to a God who loves us enough to make Himself available as a father. We do not call and receive a heavenly voicemail instructing us to press -1- for emergencies, -2- for billing and -3- to speak to an operator. No matter how young or old, no matter how weak or powerful, no matter our success or failure, we are invited together to call on our Father who is listening in Heaven.

We have hope because we are praying to a Father who is in Heaven and sees our lives and our struggles, from a higher perspective than we do. He is touched by our infirmities, but not threatened by them. He bore our sins in His body on the tree, yet they never entered His heart. The whip marks on His back purchased the healing balm for our diseases, though He Himself is our physician. We need never fear that we have too great a sin, too difficult a dilemma or too desperate a situation. These mountains we face, no matter how high their summits, will never be higher than the throne from which our Heavenly Father rules!

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We also have hope, because He calls us children- and not just any children, but HIS CHILDREN! John reflects on this in His letter when He tells us how amazing the love of our God is that “We should be called the children of God!” 1 John 1:3 ESV. He who created the universe and existed before eternity began, wants us to join Him to spend all of our eternal lives as His children! What greater hope is this – that we should be called the children of God?

Prayers for Restoration

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Often we do not know how to pray though we feel a desperate need to do so. Here are a few scriptural encouragements that cry out to the only one who holds the answers

In the sermon on the mount Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer. While some question whether its closing verse is part of the original, Solomon prayed with almost the same words more than one thousand years earlier. May it continue to be our own petition till heaven’s kingdom and will indeed are done on earth.