17 Secrets of Answered Prayer

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Opening Prayer

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There is something exciting that’s in the works. The FCC has scheduled a time for organizations to apply for a low-power radio station from November 2-9. This is a rare opportunity that only opens up every decade or so. Wouldn’t it be great to have another Christian radio station in town? One that is truly local. If you’re interested in knowing more about this, or want to participate in planning, or think you might have some experience or expertise to contribute, or you just want to join us for prayer, please come this Thursday at 6:00 pm to a planning meeting. It might seem like this is a long way out for us to be starting planning, but there are quite a number of things that have to be done before we can apply for the station, and we want to be sure we have the best chance possible at being the first to apply and have the best application possible.

Our subject this morning is “Secrets of Answered Prayer.”

Let’s pray right now.

The world was involved in its biggest conflict ever, and eight men were flying a U.S. Air Force plane over the Pacific. And everything went completely wrong that day. They got lost - and then they ran out of gas. And there was nothing to do but to place their huge flying machine down on the waters of the Pacific Ocean. All they could do was hope the sea would be calm.

But to their great dismay, the waves were ten feet high. They had to abandon the aircraft in such a hurry that they didn’t have time to get food or water.

So in three rubber life rafts, eight men drifted aimlessly over the waters of the Pacific. All they had for food was four oranges. They had very little clothing, and the only supplies they had were a few fish hooks and two knives.

And the first night they trembled all night long with the terrible cold. Wet and tired, they huddled together in the crowded rubber rafts.

And it wasn’t only the cold that made the shivers run up and down their spines; all night long, big sharks were rubbing up against the rafts. And the night seemed endless and eternal.

The next morning, it was still cold, and they ate their first orange, dividing it into eight parts. Each man ate his little tiny piece, peel and all.

And then later in the day, the sun came out and began to burn their exposed skin. So now, during the day they wished for the night, and at night they would long for the day.

And they ate one orange every other day. As the days wore on, and the salt water licked their bodies, they longed for fresh water to drink. And of course, there was water all around, but not a drop to drink. They could see fish in the water, but as they had no bait, they couldn’t catch them.

And then one of the boys spoke up - a boy who always carried a pocket Bible. And the other guys had often made fun of him for having a Bible - and they called him “the preacher.” But now that they were all in trouble, their attitude to this guy was different. They tied their rafts together and asked him to read. And here are the words that he read:

Matt 6:31-33

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “what shall we wear?”

For after all these things the Gentles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

After reading these words, he invited them to pray - and those hardened men, some of them agnostics and atheists, suddenly joined in asking God for food and water. And the answer they got was sensational.

Suddenly, an enormous bird came down and sat on the head of Eddie Rickenbacker. So he lifted his hand slowly and caught the bird by its feet. And they ate the flesh of that bird completely raw, and they used the intestines for bait and caught some fish.

Later that night it started to rain. So they spread out their clothes to catch the water, then by wringing the water out, they managed to quench their thirst. One of them later said that it was the best water he had ever tasted.

On the thirteenth day at 3 AM one of the men died. So they held a little funeral, and they placed his body into the Pacific Ocean.

For twenty-six days they drifted. And many miracles took place during those weeks. Once, a fish jumped right into the raft. On another occasion, a cloud approached, and they watched it anxiously, because they needed water so badly. But then the wind changed and drove the cloud in the opposite direction. So they prayed and the wind changed again, and brought the cloud back, and they were drenched with fresh water.

And then, after twenty-six days they were sighted by an Allied plane and rescued.

Sergeant Johnny Bartek later wrote these words:

As soon as we were in the rafts at the mercy of God, we realized that we were not in any condition to expect help from Him. We spent many hours of each day confessing our

sins to one another and to God. Then we prayed, and God answered. It was real. We needed water. We prayed for water—all we needed. Then we asked for fish,

and we got fish. And we got meat when we prayed. Sea gulls don’t go around sitting on people’s heads waiting to be caught. That day the planes flew over we all cried like babies.

It was then I prayed again to God and said, “if you’ll send that one back for us I promise I’ll believe in you and tell everyone else.”

That plane came back and the others flew on. It just happened? It did not. God sent that plane back.

Lieutenant James Whittaker, copilot of the Rickenbacker plane, had this to say:

For me those blazing days represent the greatest adventure that man can have—the one in which he finds his God. We met as strangers in

the watery wastes along the equator. We might have remained strangers. I was an agnostic; an atheist, if you will. But from my companions I learned

to pray. I saw prayer answered. My entire life has been changed by the events that began October 20, 1942. It is a day I will never forget.

Most people, including many Christians, don’t know how to pray. They KIND of know what prayer is, but it’s not really part of their everyday lives. A pastor at a large church wrote this about prayer, “I’m a minister, and I don’t know how to pray, so how can I teach other people to pray?”

It’s not like you can put prayers on a slide to examine them under a microscope, or pour them into a test tube so you can measure them. They can’t be dissected or weighed - so is there a way of knowing if YOUR prayers will actually be answered?

We sometimes get this idea that there is a special class of people - a privileged few - who always get their prayers answered. They’re the extra holy, or the pastors, or the lucky ones. But the rest of us? Well, no such luck. But that’s not what the Bible actually teaches. Here, let me show you:

Matt 7:7, 8

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

So WHO does Jesus say can have their prayers answered? Everyone! How many of us does God listen to? All of us! The Bible doesn’t talk about a privileged few - and it doesn’t say “ALMOST everyone.” It doesn’t even say “the MAJORITY of people.”

It says “EVERYONE.” You know, the Bible couldn’t even be more specific if it mentioned you by name - because if it mentioned you by name, you’d be tempted to think that it’s talking about someone ELSE with the same name - so it just says “Everyone!”

And still, some people think that even THEN, maybe God will only listen to SOME of our prayers - so let’s see what the Bible says about THAT:

John 14:13, 14

And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Now pay attention to what it actually says! “Whatever you ask,” and “Anything you ask in My name.” That’s like a blank check that God has already signed and WE get to fill in the amount! And I don’t know about you, but I kind of LIKE blank checks!

But then I know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking, “But it doesn’t work for me!” So is there something wrong with the promise?

Here’s a short section from the book Huckleberry Finn that kind of describes the way a lot of people think about prayer:

Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once

I got a fishline, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. …I set down one time back in

the woods, and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can’t the

widow get back her silver snuff-box that was stole? Why can’t Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there aint nothing in it.

And if everybody who agreed with Huckleberry Finn said “Amen” all at the same time, it would be heard all over the world. We prayed for health, and we got sickness; we prayed for money, and it never came. So we come to the same conclusion that “there ain’t nothing in it.”

But the reason it doesn’t work isn’t because God isn’t doing HIS part. It usually doesn’t work because WE forget that the Bible actually has principles you need to apply if you want to have your prayers answered. And these principles aren’t exactly rocket science - anybody sitting here could apply them and see their prayer life revolutionized.

Would you like to see them? Okay - principle number one:

You’ve got to pray in Jesus’ name. Remember, Jesus told us, “Whatever you ask IN MY NAME, that I will do.” So what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that you can make a list of requests, and then if you mention the name of Jesus at the end - you just kind of tack it on like it’s a legal document - then Jesus HAS to do what you ask, no matter what it is?

Would that even make sense? No - and that’s because that’s not exactly what the Bible means.

There’s a story from the time of Alexander the Great when they caught this young guard sleeping when he was supposed to be on watch. And of course, those of you who have spent time in the armed forces know that sleeping on guard duty is inexcusable - and back in those days, it usually meant the death penalty. You had risked the lives of your fellow soldiers, and now you would pay with your OWN life.

So they dragged this young man in front of the great conqueror, and Alexander asked him, “Is it TRUE that you were sleeping on duty? What is your name?”

And now there was suddenly a glimmer of hope in the young man’s eyes, and he said, “Sir, my name is Alexander, just like yours!”

“Then what you need to do,” he told the young man, “is either change your conduct, or change your name!”

And that’s what it means to HAVE the name of Jesus. It means that we take on His character. Remember how Jesus said:

Matt 7:21

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

And THAT’S one of the biggest concepts in Bible prophecy - that we take the name of God on ourselves - that we allow God to recreate us in His image, so that we become more like Him - and our characters become more Christlike.

So to pray in the name of Jesus doesn’t just mean that we use His name out loud - it means that we live in sync with the things that are important to Him - that we take His values and make them our own. So principle number one: start living like Jesus would live, and take His name as your own.

Principle number two: you’ve got to pray with faith, which is a principle you find in the book of James:

James 1:6, 7

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…

So what, exactly, does THAT mean? It means that if you want to have your prayers answered, you’ve got to eradicate doubt - and you’ve got to learn to trust Him.

And of course, that leads to another problem, because what if you DO have doubts? What are you supposed to do if you DON’T have remarkable faith? Well, the answer is really pretty simple: the Bible tells us that the reason our faith is weak is because we neglect to feed it. And how do you feed your faith? Listen to what the Bible says:

Romans 10:17

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing–” BY THE WHAT? “BY THE WORD OF GOD.”

If you find that your faith is flagging, and you struggle to believe that God’s Word is good, then you need to feed your faith. It’s just like feeding your physical body: if you starve yourself, you become weak and emaciated - and if you starve your faith, the same thing happens. In fact, if most of us fed our bodies the way we feed our faith, we would starve to death in a matter of weeks!

So you’ve got to feed the Word of God into heart and mind, which only makes sense if you want the Father’s name in your forehead. But that doesn’t just mean that you let your eyes scan over the pages of the Bible, because building your faith takes more than just giving your mental assent to what God is asking for. If you want to REALLY build your faith, you’ve got to read the will of God, and then DO it.

There’s an old story of a tightrope walker named Charles Blondin at Niagara Falls. And the people would watch with bated breath as he crossed the deep chasm from one side to the other. And one day he told the crowd that he was going to attempt something even more difficult than just walking on a rope. He would push a wheelbarrow across the line to the other side. So a huge crowd gathered to see the impossible stunt. And just before he did it, he turned to one man in the crowd and said, “Do you believe I can push a man across in this wheelbarrow?”

“Absolutely!” the man said. “I’ve seen you walk across that line a hundred times, and I KNOW you can do it.”

“Well then GET INTO THE WHEELBARROW,” he said. And of course, the man wasn’t willing to go that far - because all he had was mental assent; he didn’t have faith.

And it works that way with God, too - because it’s easy to SAY “I believe,” but it’s another thing to live like you do! So principle number two: you’ve got to pray with faith, which means that you’ve got to start LIVING like you really BELIEVE God.

Which brings us to another principle which is closely related:

Principle number three: you’ve got to live a life of obedience - and this is where so many people fall apart in their prayer lives, because we want God to do what WE want, but we don’t think it works the other way around. And yet that’s EXACTLY what the Bible teaches:

1 John 3:21, 22

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him,

because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Now don’t forget that keeping the commandments doesn’t actually SAVE you, because we are not saved by works. But at the same time, Jesus is crystal clear that “if you love Me,” you will “keep my commandments!” You’re going to live in harmony with the will of God.

And if we refuse to do that, it drives a wedge between us and God, because the Bible teaches that sin actually separates us from His throne. So you’ve got to expect that if you’re willfully sinning, it’s going to damage your relationship with the One you’re trying to pray to.

And this is something that the Psalmist taught very clearly:

“If I regard iniquity” - that’s literally “lawlessness” - “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” And it only makes sense - because if you’re not interested in a relationship with God, you can’t expect a to have a vibrant prayer life.

And if that verse wasn’t clear enough, then look at what it says in the book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 28:9

One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

The reason that lots of prayers go unanswered is because our lives are filled with unconfessed sins, and that shuts down the lines of communication between earth and heaven. Remember: God’s not going to force you into the kingdom. If you want to live your own way, fine - but we need to understand that it’s causing damage to our relationship with God.

And if we’re demonstrating, day in and day out, that we want to live life our own way, then God’s going to let us have what we’re asking for. But we can’t ask God to participate in that, to become complicit with it, because He knows that our choices are going to destroy us.

BUT - if we WANT that relationship - if we WANT to make things right with God - then it makes all the difference in the world. Which brings us to principle number four:

Make things right with others. If you look at the Ten Commandments very carefully, you’ll notice something interesting: the first four commandments deal with our relationship to God, and the last six commandments deal with our relationship to each other. That’s why, when someone asked Jesus which of the commandments was the most important, this is how He replied:

Matt 22:37-39

Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So if you really want to live in harmony with God, it means making things right with your Creator, AND it means making things right with the people in your life - even the difficult people. Because to have the mind of Christ means to live like Jesus lived, and He was willing to give up all the glories of heaven for the sake of saving US. A bunch of difficult people.

So you’ll notice what Jesus says about worshiping God at church while you still hold a grudge against somebody else:

Matt 5:23, 24

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there

before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Now that doesn’t mean that you have to LIKE what other people do, and it doesn’t mean that you have to stay in an abusive situation, but it DOES mean that you need to forgive the people around you. And you DO need to sort things out with other people if you’re going to be a vibrant part of the body of Christ - because the way Jesus designed the church is for all of us to bring our gifts together - and work together to prepare the world for Jesus to come.

So what God is looking for is harmony and forgiveness among His people. And He even says that if we refuse to forgive other people, we’re going to have trouble asking GOD for forgiveness.

And I know: it’s not always easy to get along with other Christians - but let’s be honest, you and I aren’t always easy to get along with, either. I remember the words of an old preacher who once said, “To live with the saints in heaven, that will be glory. But to live with them on earth? That’s ANOTHER story!”

So principle number three: live in harmony with God, and principle number four: to the best of your ability, choose to live in harmony with others. And that brings us down to principle number five:

Pray according to the will of God. Here’s what the Bible says:

1 John 5:14

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Remember: when Jesus prayed He said, “Not MY will but YOUR will be done.” And of course, Jesus is our perfect example. If you want to see results, then pray according to God’s will. And that means we trust that God knows more than we do, and we’re going to trust that He answers the RIGHT WAY.

Now of course, we COULD pray according to OUR will, but that often leads to disaster, because the Bible teaches (in Proverbs 14:12), “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” In other words, our gauges are broken. Our hearts and minds are twisted by sin, and we don’t really KNOW what’s best for us anymore - unless God tells us.

And so we choose to trust that HE’s always going to do the right thing - which is why Christians say, “Here’s what I’d like, Lord, but what I really want is YOUR will in my life, so I’m going to trust You. I’m going to pray that YOUR WILL BE DONE.”

Have you ever been to a big city parade before? My family went to a big parade in Seattle around Christmas time a few years ago. We got there a little bit too late to get a good spot and found ourselves looking through the cracks between the people.

One of my friends, who lives near Chicago, took his wife to a thanksgiving day parade. Where they host the parade in Chicago there is a long stretch of road about a mile long with tall buildings on either side. The best spot is on the 2nd story of a department store where they have a large bank of windows. From there you can see the whole stretch from beginning to end. But, like us, my friend got there a little later than planned and the department store spots were already taken. So They managed to find a spot two or three rows down on street level.

They had a narrow field of view — just a narrow section that they could see at a time. As they watched a float go by they could see just the front, and then the middle and then the back, and then a long blank space until the next one went by. They saw sections of marching bands and jugglers and all kinds of other things.

But they had no idea what was coming up next. And as soon as something passed their field of view, they had no idea what was happening down the road.

One of the marching bands had a few members who needed water. My friend and his wife saw the whole procession stop for a few minutes and wondered what was going on. They couldn’t know that a few hundred feet past their viewing spot a couple of the band members had collapsed.

The truth is that in our lives we have a narrow field of view. We’re not sitting up in the 2nd story looking at the whole picture. We’re down in the crowd, one or two rows back. We see very little. We have no idea what is coming up next, or what the results of some event has caused in someone else’s life.

But God has a different perspective. He sees the whole path of our existence.

Our prayers are focused on the narrow field of vision that we have. But when God answers our prayers he’s answering them for our best good, taking into consideration our whole history and future.

And so sometimes God says “Yes,” but then again, as any good parent knows, sometimes He has to say “No!” And that doesn’t mean that our prayer isn’t answered - it just means the answer is NO. And thank God that’s true - because in the past, I’ve offered a lot of very foolish prayers, and now that I look back, I can see exactly WHY God didn’t give me some of those things I wanted. They would have messed up my life.

And if you and I could see the end from the beginning, the way that God can, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Because the day is coming when God will open the books of judgment and show us WHY He did the things He did, and when we see it, we’re going to agree with Him:

Revelation 15:3, 4

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “great and marvelous are your works, Lord God almighty!

Just and true are Your ways, O king of saints! Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for your judgments have been manifested.

In other words, “You have always done the RIGHT thing.”

A famous preacher used to tell the story of a horrible disease that people would get in Brazil - it was so awful, so painful that the locals just called it “Savage Fire.” It would cover your whole body with open sores that burned like fire, and there was no cure. If you got this disease, you weren’t welcome in the hospital because of the stench that went along with the disease. And the patients couldn’t even sleep on regular bedsheets, because the open sores would stick to the linen, and rip away pieces of your flesh. So they sometimes put the victim on shiny banana leaves, that didn’t stick, and then they left them in the jungle to die.

But there was a pastor by the name of Barbosa who suddenly found a cure, because his own wife got a case of Savage Fire, and he traveled the length and breadth of the country looking for a cure, and he finally found one.

He took his wife to the city of São Paulo, where he took her to universities and hospitals, hoping that somebody could help him. But they all shrugged their shoulders, because they KNEW there was no cure.

And his wife got worse by the day, and he knew her time was short. And one day she said to her husband, “Listen, I know my days are numbered. So please go home and get our children, because I want to see them before I die.”

But they couldn’t afford an airline ticket, and the trip by train meant several tedious days on a narrow-gauge railway. So taking a chance, he dropped by an air force base to see if somebody could get him home - and he discovered that a small plane would be leaving for his hometown the next morning, and that there would be a seat for him on that plane, absolutely free.

It seemed like an answer to his prayers!

But then his plans to catch that plane suddenly fell apart, and he struggled to understand why it happened. Had God let him down? It was SO important for him to get home quickly! Why wouldn’t God help him?

So he went to the railway station and purchased a second-class ticket - the very thing he DIDN’T want to do, because it meant that he would have to endure the long journey on a hard wooden seat. And yet somehow, in spite of his uncomfortable position, he managed to fall asleep. And in the middle of the night he suddenly woke up. The train had stopped in the middle of the jungle.

So he asked one of the passengers why the train had stopped. And the passenger took him outside and led him to a spot where he saw the wreckage of a plane. And it was the plane that he had missed the previous day. And now, he suddenly understood why God had said no - it would have cost him his life!

When he finally got to his hometown, he saw something very strange - a lady getting into a taxi who was painted from head to toe with a black tar-like substance. So of course, he asked her why she looked like that, and she said, “This is the cure for Savage Fire! Don’t you know about it?”

“No, I don’t! Please! Where can I find this?” So she sent him to an old doctor in the jungle who was curing Savage Fire patients every day.

So, armed with his precious elixir, he went back to São Paulo, and his wife was completely cured. And if he had taken the plane, he’d be dead, and if his train had not arrived at that precise moment, his wife would be dead. And now he could see that God knows what He’s doing - all the time.

You know, children don’t always understand why their parents say no. A toddler doesn’t understand why his mother won’t let him play with a razor blade. But the fact is that a mother knows something about razor blades that she doesn’t want her toddler to learn.

And when you and I fully trust God, and we choose to believe that He knows what’s best for us, we’re going to thank Him for the answer He chooses. And His promise is this:

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Now you’ll notice - it doesn’t say that “all things are good,” because all things are NOT good.

You’d think that because chocolate cake tastes good, that all of the ingredients would taste good, too - but I don’t know if you’ve ever tasted a spoonful of cocoa power, because it is DEFINITELY not good.

And that’s the way it is with life - not everything is good. But if you trust God, He has a way of taking all that bad stuff and STILL making something good of it.

So don’t be afraid to show God your plans and the desires of your heart. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. But at the same time, do what Jesus did - say, “Nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) And then be willing to accept God’s answer.

And don’t forget that Jesus prayed, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” - and then God the Father answered that prayer through a cross. And the cross is not a good thing - it’s the very worst our world had to offer the Son of God. But look at what God has done with that - He’s taken the humiliation of His Son, and He’s offering you eternal life.

I love to read the stories about George Müller of Bristol, England, because he was such a man of God! He’s known for building and running orphanages for thousands of children, and he did it all as a matter of faith.

And the story goes that one day, he received a visit from Abigail Townsend. And as she walked into the orphanage one morning, the children were getting ready for breakfast. They were seated around long tables, and each one had their plate, their cup, and their silverware . . . but there was no food. So she asked George Müller where the food was, and he said, “Well, we don’t have any yet, but the Lord will provide.”

And then he turned to the children, and he said, “Children, let’s ask the blessing on the food. Dear Father, we thank you for the food that we are about to receive, even though we don’t know where it’s coming from, but we know that You will provide.”

And just then, there was a knock at the door, and it was a local baker. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” he said. “I was impressed to get up at 3 AM and bake bread for you. So I’m delivering a whole load of bread for these kids.”

And no sooner had they closed the door than there was ANOTHER knock, and this time it was the milkman. And he said, “Listen, my cart just broke down and I can’t deliver all of this milk, and it’s going to spoil unless someone uses it. Do you think you could use it?”

And that’s the way it was with George Müller of Bristol, every day of his life. One time, he was traveling by ship to Canada when a thick fog settled over the Atlantic, and they couldn’t continue their journey. And for days they drifted, so one day Mr. Müller spoke to the captain and said, “Look, I’ve got to be in Canada this weekend. Isn’t there something you can do?”

“Well, what do you expect me to do, Mr. Müller? I’m as anxious to get there as you are, but I can’t control the fog.”

“Well, we can pray,” he said. So they went into the chartroom to pray, and the captain later told people: “Mr. Müller talks to God like a friend. You can sense the presence of God in the room. It seems as if He’s right there!”

Mr. Müller prayed, “Lord, you know I have to be in Canada to do Your work. So please lift the fog, and I thank you for hearing my prayer.”

And when Müller finished praying, the captain asked, “Do you want ME to pray now?”

“No,” Müller said, “I don’t want you to pray for two reasons. First of all, you don’t really believe, so it wouldn’t do any good. And secondly, there is no need for you to pray because I fully believe that God has already answered my prayer and lifted the fog. Why don’t we go outside and see?”

So they went out on the deck, and the fog had disappeared completely.

You know, I believe in a God who answers prayer. The answers might not always be as dramatic as George Müller’s, but I know God listens to your prayers. And if you would just put your life in His hands - completely - you’re going to discover that He really DOES answer all of your prayers, all of the time.

We’re going to do something a little different today. We’re going to sing a hymn. Jesus did this with the Disciples, and it’s a great way to seal in an idea that we’ve studied from the Bible.

Today we’re going to sing a simple song titled, “Near the Cross.” If you don’t know the song, just listen to the words until you pick up on the tune. If you know the song, please sing along.

Song

Prayer