Being right with God is only half the picture. If you want your prayers to be effective, the stipulation is clear: you must be right with others as well. Living a life of love toward others is not only one of the hallmarks of the Christian faith, it is also an essential ingredient to effectual prayer. Faith and Love go hand in hand. Love and Forgiveness are inseparable. You can't have one without the other. You can't expect a real and lively prayer-life to exist apart from the way you act or feel toward other people - all of whom, incidentally, God loves immensely. We demonstrate our love for the imperfect people around us by readily offering mercy and forgiveness when they hurt or do us wrong. We demonstrate our faith in God's love for us in these sometimes daily acts of selfless forgiveness. In fact, God even says that He bases His willingness to forgive upon the degree that we are willing to forgive others. This is a good opportunity to check our relationships. What needs to be forgiven? Who needs to experience some of God's love through you today?

The disciples wanted to know why they could not cast out this one particularly stubborn demon. Jesus' answer was plain: "Because of your unbelief." Surely the next thoughts that came to His students' minds were something like: "Well, we've done this before. What makes this one different? We do have a little bit of faith... oh, but you're saying we need more of it?" Andrew Murray turns the disciples' predicament toward us and invites us to consider whether some of the sin and suffering around us is our blame. "In the spiritual world," he states, "failure has but one cause, the want of faith... It is in prayer, in the exercise of the faith I have [already], in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase... men of strong faith are men of much prayer... Faith needs prayer for its full growth. And prayer needs fasting for its full growth." Are we willing to go to THAT length - resolved to sacrifice anything if necessary - so that God can use us for His redemptive work in the world? If Jesus and His first disciples made use of fasting to strengthen and increase their faith, why shouldn't we?

"Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the promiser; the prayer of faith is rooted in the life of faith... We seek God's gifts; God wants to give us HIMSELF first... Therefore, child of God, take time, take time, to bow before Him, to wait on Him to reveal Himself. Take time, and let thy soul in holy awe and worship exercise and express its faith in the infinite One, and as He imparts Himself and takes possession of thee, the prayer of faith will crown thy faith in God." - Andrew Murray

We've been promised many things that we haven't yet received in personal experience. Jesus' physical presence on this earth for example. But faith that has already experienced a God whose hands always deliver what His mouth has spoken knows that if He has promised something, He will deliver again. Jesus says, "Believe that ye receive, and ye shall have." He says this about "all things" and "whatsoever" we pray. The only condition is belief. There can be no real coming to God without this belief and there can be no real asking with confident expectation without this belief. Belief in His Word, a trusting in His guaranteed faithfulness. Jesus says, "Have faith in God." When your faith is in God, you will want what God wants and the statement "all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for" no longer seems like a dangerous thing for Jesus to say. By faith, you can have solid answers to your requests even before you actually receive them in physical or personal experience because God has those answers waiting for you. So take Jesus at His word and ask yourself: 1)What do I have the faith to ask for today? 2)How does my faith need to grow? Then, go to your King and ask those things. Ask so your faith will grow to be as big as His promises.

Do you know what you really want when you pray? As children and as servants of God, we need to remember that there is a "business" element of prayer. Specific requests will receive specific answers. When you order a product for your business, don't you expect to have it delivered? A good supplier will want to deliver to the customer's satisfaction. In much the same way, God desires to show us His acceptance and approval for the work we are doing by granting us our specific petitions. The biggest difference between “willing” for something to happen and “wishing” for it is that having a will leads to deliberate action. When we get our wills involved in our prayers, our approach will begin to be more definite. We will experience more clarity, sense of purpose, and a definite focus on God’s will, which leads to greater unity with Him, and, most importantly, we will actually begin to receive the things we are asking for.

“Wherever there is a complaint of the want of helpers, or of fit helpers in God’s work, prayer has the promise of a supply.” - Andrew Murray

In this lesson, Andrew Murray explores the friendship aspect of prayer: friendship with God and friendship with the poor and needy (both physically and spiritually) around us. “God’s friendship to us and ours to others go hand-in-hand…The one thing by which man can honour and enjoy his God is faith. Intercession is part of Faith‘s training-school. There our friendship with men and with God is tested…” Sometimes in the school of “answer delayed.” When the Friend in Heaven (who is actually so much more ready to give us what we need than the sleepy friend in Luke 11:5-8) tries to educate and train us into greater perseverance by delaying our answers, how do we respond? Do we set ourselves to it in determination and perseverance, or do we back out and assume God must not be such a great friend after all? The friend who came begging for bread at midnight had at least two obstacles: 1.his request was an inconvenience, 2.his friend said no the first time. Mr. Murray insists that: “It is when we give ourselves to be a blessing that we can specially count on the blessing of God. It is when we draw near to God as the friend of the poor and the perishing that we may count on His friendliness; the righteous man who is the friend of the poor is very specially the friend of God.” So let’s take God at His Word and believe that it is not Him who will be inconvenienced by our requests, but that it is we who need to grow in our perseverance in order to see the glory of God shine through in our efforts of love and generosity toward others.

Is it a foreign concept to us that a father might want to impart not only his blessings and gifts to his children but also his own perspective of the past, his own spirit, strength of character, and integrity for the present, his dreams, will, plans, and desires for the future? This is what God wants most of all: for us to possess His Holy Spirit. He wants us to be filled and overflowing with His mind, the humility of Christ, the love of God, His grace and wisdom. It’s all ours for the asking… and when we’ve got it, we can ask it for our brothers and sisters who need it too.

Infinity is a measurement beyond comprehension. God's desire to provide for us, to meet our requests, to supply our needs, and to protect us from harm is so far beyond our comprehension that it helps to think in terms of the father-child metaphor. If an earthly father would be willing to give good gifts to a beloved child HOW MUCH MORE our Heavenly Father? Not only is God willing, He has the resources and means to supply us with rich blessings beyond what we could even think to ask. He can absolutely give us everything we need and many things we want, but the key to a successful prayer life is what Andrew Murray calls "the child-life." When we see ourselves as needy children and experience the infinite Father-love of God in that place; when we remember who we are and who He is, in that way; when we choose to live and walk with God as our kind and loving Father, not just when we want things from Him but simply as the natural course of life; imagine what that does for our healing. Imagine how it grows our faith in Him! As children, we have a RIGHT to boldly (and humbly) approach Almighty God to petition Him for the things we need. As Father, God has pledged to fulfill His promises to us, to give us His holiness, His wisdom, His love, joy, peace, and many, many other good gifts. So ask. So seek. So knock.

When you pray, do you expect to receive a solid answer? According to Matthew 7:8, receiving an answer to prayer is the proof of that prayer’s effectiveness. Sometimes it is easier to be content without a distinct answer than to let our prayers be examined for disconnect. But as Andrew Murray points out, “Man’s prayer on earth and Gods answer in Heaven are meant for each other.” So if you are receiving no definite answers (whether yes or no) have the patience and willingness to not only ask but also to seek and knock for those answers.