2023 02 22

Good morning.

We serve God while living in the purpose/calling He has for each of us. Jesus reminds us that we are chosen by Him so that we might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. And here's the really good news. Jesus carried on and said, "that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you." (John 15:16)

If only! We often hear people say that God does not answer their prayers. James tells us, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

So how do we change this? We allow Holy Spirit to direct our prayers. We ask Holy Spirit to stir up God's desires in us, and to reveal God's plans to us, and pray accordingly. As we pray for our God-inspired concerns for others, for the Church and sectors of society, we are more likely to experience God working through us and around us.

When we look at how God used Nehemiah we see that on numerous occasions he prayed short, focused prayers. (Nehemiah 2:4, 4:4, 5:18-19, 6:8-9)

Charles Spurgeon says, "God does not hear us because of the length of our prayer, but because of the sincerity of it. Prayer is not measured by the yard, nor weighed by the pound. It is the might and force of it, the truth and reality of it, the energy and intensity of it."

Let's go and bear much fruit which has been soaked in God's desires.

Blessings.

Mike and Daphne