For summary click on the title. On the summary page click "here" for PowerPoint

Summary Gill Khoury Dec 31^st  2017

If you’re going to say a prayer, it’s more often than not you want something to change. Yes there are times when we praise purely for the joy of praising but often we spend more on supplication than we do on adoration. When you pray for a blessing, you want to feel blessed afterward. When you pray for protection, you want to feel safe afterward. When you pray for deliverance, you want your problems to go away as soon as possible.

But if change doesn’t happen—or if change doesn’t happen like you think it should—you might conclude that praying doesn’t really work.

That’s probably why God has filled the Bible with stories of answered prayers. People implored God to intercede in their messy lives, which of course, He did. As you read these incredible stories of answered prayers, notice two important aspects:

-The attitude and motives of the person who prayed

-The power with which God answered

These stories could change the way you pray and change how your prayers get answered.

1. Hannah is infertile, and she prays desperately for a son.

“O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life” (1 Sam. 1:11).

2. Peter is in prison for preaching the gospel; the church prayed for his release.

“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” (Acts 12:5)

3. Jerusalem is under siege, so Hezekiah prays to save his people.

“And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ‘Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God’” (1 Kings 19:20).

4. Jairus asks Jesus to heal his daughter so she won't die.

“My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live” (Mark 5:23).

5. Moses asks God to see Him.

 “Now show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18).

6. Hezekiah prays because God tells him that he is about to die.

“‘Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes’” (2 Kings 20:3).

7. Jesus prays for God's will before His arrest and crucifixion.

“‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done’” (Luke 22:42).

8. To save his life and his friends' lives, Daniel prays for God to reveal a dream and its interpretation.

“Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:17-18).

!

9. When Elisha and his servant are surrounded by the enemy, Elisha prays for God to reveal His power.

“‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see’” (2 Kings 6:16).

10. A thief on a cross asks Jesus to save him before he dies.

 “Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:42-43).