God Answers Prayer

"The threefold promise annexed to the threefold precept, should encourage all Christians to be instant, fervent, and constant in prayer.

Though prayer is not the ground, nor the cause of obtaining favors and mercies from God—yet it is the means, it is the silver channel, it is the golden pipe, through which the Lord is pleased to convey to His people all temporal, spiritual, and eternal favors. God promises to give them the cream, the choicest, the sweetest of all spiritual, eternal, and temporal blessings; but mark, Ezekiel 36:37, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." Though God is very prompt and ready to bestow upon His people the best and the greatest of blessings—yet He will by prayer be sought unto, for the actual enjoyment of them. He who has no heart to pray for a mercy, he has no ground to believe that God will ever give him the mercy. There is no receiving without asking, no finding without seeking, no opening without knocking. The proud beggar gets nothing from men, and the silent sinner gets nothing of God. As there is no mercy too great for God to give, so there is no mercy too little for us to crave. Certainly that man has little worth in him who thinks any mercy not worth a seeking." Thomas Brooks

I was once told something similar to this, that just about sums this whole thing up, but is much shorter,and that is: "You have to pray like it depends on God, and live like it depends on you." This is true because we have a responsibility that coincides with God's will at times we may or may not know about. Therefore, we should live as if it is always our responsibility, while maintaining a relationship with His so we know its really not! Or another simple phrase that somewhat goes along with this but not entirely is "nothing changes if nothing changes." Anyways, I hope that this finds you and speaks to you with whatever God wants you to hear, so all the praise, honor, and glory go to Jesus.

With love,
Jesse