KEY TO ANSWERED PRAYERS

 

KEY TO ANSWERED PRAYERS

John 15:7-8 "But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father." NLT

Two things must happen on our part in order for God to do His part when we pray. First we must stay joined with Christ and secondly, the Word of God must stay in us. I think it would be well for us to consider how we might not stay connected with the Lord and keep His Word in our hearts.

We lose our connection to Christ when we take our eyes off of Him and start focusing on the world or people. When we become captivated by what is around us instead of who is over us, we get into trouble. It takes determination and concentration to keep Christ in our lives. It doesn't just happen. We have to work diligently and hard to keep from being drawn away from Him.

We lose our connection as well whenever we fail to exercise our spiritual disciplines. In order to think and act Biblically, we must stay in our Bibles. We must read it and meditate on it regularly. We must not let anything rob us of our needed time in the Word. We must make our Bible time and prayer the main priority of our days. When we don't, the world draws us away from the Lord and fills us with its ways of thinking and living.

Jesus promises us that when we keep our souls connected and well fed, we can ask the Lord anything and it will be granted to us. This is true because when we are properly connected, we will ask according to His will and not ours. We will want what the Lord wants. We will desire to please Him and will want to see His will done on earth, even as it is in heaven. And, when all this happens, it brings much glory to God, our Father.

And when God has a different answer to our prayers than we want or expect, we submit to His will with thanksgiving for our Father always knows what is best.