10 Scriptural Reasons You Can Change - 7

Reason why God says you can CHANGE #7:

"God has given us the BLANK CHECK of PRAYER."

"Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7,8

If being BORN AGAIN, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, having Christ intercede for us in Heaven, having God sovereignly control all things for our transformation into Christ's likeness, having the Bible to teach us and renew us, and being part of the community of the being made new, the Church, WASN'T ENOUGH to effect real and lasting change in our lives REGARDLESS of our past, present, or future...

God has given us the breath-taking promise that IF WE ASK, He, the sovereign, all powerful Lord of the universe, WILL ANSWER! What a CHANGE AGENT is PRAYER! We cannot change ourselves...but we CAN pray. We cannot change others, but we CAN pray. We cannot overcome memories from the past that we just can't seem to put away, but we CAN pray. We cannot rise up in hope and joy each day in such an uncertain world that SEEMS to be controlled by those who do not share our worldview...God's worldview...but we CAN pray.

And when we DO pray...God promises to answer...and HE CAN do all the things we cannot and He can do them exceedingly abundantly above ALL that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20,21).

What are YOU praying for in regards to your spiritual GROWTH? How are you praying for your spouse and children to CHANGE?

As we pray, there are some important points to be reminded of:

• KEEP ON praying. This is the tense of the ask, seek, knock in Matthew 7. How soon we give up! Make up your mind that you will ask God to change your life daily and you will not stop. This shows you are serious and that you really DO believe He means what He promises. MANY of our unanswered prayers are simply prayers that we stopped praying.
• Pray ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL. 1 John 5:14. If you want a REAL encouragement to keep praying, dig into the Word of God and see what God wants you to pray and then KNOW that He ALWAYS answers the prayer that agrees with His will. God WILL answer: "Lord, give me a heart of love and compassion for my neighbors" because it is His will expressed in Mark 12:31. God WILL answer "Lord, fill me with your Spirit as I serve my brothers and sisters in corporate worship today" because it is His will expressed in Luke 11:13 and 1 Corinthians 12:7. Will God answer "Lord, make this LOTTO card be a winner!"? Better look long and hard into the Word for that one!
• TAKE care of SIN in your life before you expect answered prayer. David is very clear on this in Psalm 66:18, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." This prayer-hindering sin may include: selfish motives (James 4:3); a broken relationship with my brother (Matthew 5:23,24); not praying according to God's will (1 John 5:14); unforgiveness (Matthew 6:14,15); or loving the world (1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4). It is a good thing to evaluate my heart and to ask the Lord to show me any sin that may be a ceiling to my prayers.
• ASK OTHERS to PRAY along with you (Colossians 4:2-4). How powerful is united prayer...wow!

When I was in college, one day I came back to my dorm room between classes and while there I got down on my knees, and with no one around, began to verbally pour out my heart to the Lord in prayer. It was probably a pretty passionate time and it lasted for a while. After I finished praying, I eventually started to leave the room...BUT...for some reason I went back to my stand up closet and opened it before I left. To my GREAT surprise and consternation (?), my roommate was sitting there on the closet floor looking like...well, like he SHOULD have looked. He had heard me coming into the room and wanted to hide and scare the pants off me. What better place than the closet? The only problem was, I started to pray before the right SCARE moment presented itself. Poor Bill. He had to sit there for quite a while and didn't dare make things worse by interrupting my prayer time. After that time, BILL KNEW a lot about my prayer life! He knew the kinds of things I prayed for...HOW I prayed, etc.

Brothers and sisters...if someone were to be able to look into your prayer closet without your knowing it, WHAT WOULD THEY HEAR? Would they hear you taking advantage of God's astounding promises to answer the prayers of His people for CHANGE?

May it more and more be so for us as we ask, seek, and knock to the One who CAN.