I want to try, in this post, to talk a little bit about practical things. Most of us, when we set out to improve ourselves in some way, ask, "What are the 3 things I can do to get better results?" or, "What are 5 easy steps to guaranteed spirituality?" Specifically for our topic, "What things can I do, that I am not doing now, that will help me achieve answers to prayer?" People came to Jesus with a similar request. They said, "What shall we do so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:28-29) That must have been a frustrating answer for them. And you might be saying, "How do I believe? I can't manufacture faith in something I haven't seen and don't understand." Look carefully at what Jesus said: "Believe in Him." The essence of faith is to trust a person. The point of what He said was to help you see there is nothing you can "do." You just have to trust Him. You can't even believe on your own. You need help with that. One desperate father cried out to Jesus, "I do believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). Is there anyone that you trust? Did you know everything about that person before you started to trust him? More likely, something inside you felt good about him, and you decided to take a risk.
I wrote in an earlier post that God did something great in the life of someone I love, and it showed me that He was looking for an excuse to do good things in my life. What He did was an answer to a prayer that I had prayed a few years before and that others had prayed. The answer did not depend on my current faith, because I was discouraged. Now, because He intervened, I was suddenly full of hope and joy. Hope is what happens to you, when you realize that God is taking an active interest in your life and He is working things out for your good, both in this life and the next. The next thing I did was what you might call a practical thing. But it was really a response to the encouragement I was getting from God. I changed the channel on my radio in my car. I spend over two hours commuting back and forth to work, and I noticed that I was usually angry by the time I got to work or home. I realized that what I was listening to made me irritable. I turned it to a station that played songs about God and kept it there. Please understand that I am not telling you what you have to get rid of. I am telling you that I gave up something perfectly OK, because of its effect on me, and I received something better in return. I found that the worship songs were starting to speak truth to me. I opened up my Bible and started reading it. I used to see theology and church history in the Bible. Now I was seeing promises. I wrote at the beginning of the blog that my wife and I encountered Jesus' promise to do what we ask in His name. One of the great things about the Bible is that you can read something a dozen times and think you know what it means, and then you see it again and it comes alive for you. We asked God to show us what it means. God started answering prayers as soon as we started asking, sometimes in dramatic ways, at our workplaces, with our children, with people who were sick, with issues that we were struggling with, and even with people that we were struggling with. God literally gave us specific purpose and callings through that one prayer to show us what the promise really meant. Now I keep a list of what I am asking for. And I am encouraged to keep asking God for bigger things.
If you are like most of us, you carry around hopes and hurts. Too many times, our hopes lose out to our hurts. God is calling you to reach out for the life He offers. It is not intended to be a life of dashed hopes. Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) Can you describe your life in terms of "abundance?" If not, you might be doing it wrong! The problem with the "3 easy steps" method is that it still leaves you in control. Jesus is asking you to do a crazy thing, but maybe not so crazy. He is asking you to drop all your hopes and hurts in His lap and let Him love you.