Here we are at session three. That went by really fast, at least for me. We looked at to whom do we pray, we talked about who God is, his power, his ability to effect change. We talked about the fact that he's our father and so he has the desire to effect change for us.

And then this morning we looked at why we pray, the relationship that we have with God and how we pray, and how the Bible has so many wonderful examples for us of prayer, whether it's in the Old Testament and the Psalms or looking at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane or the outline that he gave his disciples to use in their prayer.

And so now we come to session three which is does prayer have an effect? Does prayer really change anything? I think all of us have heard at one time or another the slogan "Prayer changes things." See, you don't bump for stickers and signs. Is it biblical to think that prayer changes things?

Is that what the Bible teaches? Well James chapter 5 verse 16 says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." Yeah, the Bible teaches us that prayer does change things. Our prayers have an impact and an effect. I want to look at a few examples. I'm going to look at just a few and I have to admit at one point I had about twice as many notes and you should be very thankful that I cut it in half.

But it's so hard to choose which examples to use because the Old Testament is so full of examples of men crying out to God and God answering and God making change happen. So the few we're going to look at, one is Moses. In Exodus 32 he has led the people out of Egypt.

We talked about how God showed his mighty power in delivering the Israelites from Egypt through his mighty axe. He's brought them through the Red Sea. He brings them out to the wilderness to Mount Sinai and he calls Moses up to the mountain and Moses is gone for 40 days up on that mountain talking to God, receiving from God the covenant that he would have with his people.

And as Moses is coming back down the mountain, the people have not been idle. They have taken their gold and their silver and they have melted it down and made a golden calf. It's mind boggling when you really step back and think about this. Here God took them out of hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt.

He showed his incredible power to them in the 12 plagues that he afflicted Egypt with. He literally split the sea open and had them walk through on dry land. And they come to the mountain of God and they see the thunder and the rumbling as we talked about it was such an awesome sight that the people said, "Moses, you go talk to God because if we do, we'll die." And as they are seeing all of this, they're sitting at the bottom of the mountain hearing the thunder and the rumblings and they go, "You know what, maybe we need something we can see.

We can't see God." And so they make an idol, not out of wood, but out of gold. And they're worshiping this idol and God becomes angry with the people. And he tells Moses, "I'm going to destroy this people. I'm going to destroy them and I'm going to make a nation out of you." You would think Moses, who's put up with some grumbling already about water, about food, we're going to come out here and die.

What have you done to us, Moses? You think he'd go? I agree. These people, they really don't honor you. They aren't thankful. All they ever do is complain. That's fine, God. You go ahead and punish them and you can start over with me. That's not what Moses responds with.

And we see in Exodus 32, verse 11, that Moses pleaded with the Lord, his God, and said, "Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?" And then he talks to God and reasons with him about how the Egyptians would say, "Well, God just brought them out to the wilderness to kill them.

God, he is." But in verse 14, it tells us, "So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people." Moses cried out to God and God heard him and God relented. Did Moses' prayer have an effect? Absolutely. The prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much.

Another example we have in the Old Testament is the prophet Elijah. There were some pretty amazing things that God did through Elijah, but he was a prophet for Israel during a time where there weren't repentant kings like King David. I'm sure Elijah wishes he lived in the time of the prophet Nathan where he would have a king that would respond in repentance.

Instead, Elijah was a prophet of God during a time when the kings were very, very wicked and their queens were no better. And we see here that Elijah has been dealing with Ahab and Jezebel. Even today, most of us know the name Jezebel. Even if you're not a Christian, you've probably heard of, "Oh, that Jezebel.

Well that's talking about this queen. She was that wicked." And so she hates Jehovah God. She has done everything she can so that Israel will no longer worship Jehovah. She has torn down places of worship. She has killed every prophet she can find. Elijah has eluded her. And in James 5, verse 17 and 18, and this is in fact right before our verse in James 5, verse 16 that talks about the prayer of a righteous man avails much.

This is right after that and they use Elijah as the example for the fact that our prayers make a difference. In verse 17, it says, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours." How often do we kind of put Bible characters in a different class? Somehow they were different kind of people?

No. Elijah was a man just as we are today. Nothing extraordinary about him. He served an extraordinary God. And so it tells us that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain. It did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

Verse 18 tells us, "And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit." Elijah prayed to God to close up the heavens and it did not rain on his country for three and a half years. Even in California we get more rain than that.

This was not a fluke of nature. This was God choosing to listen to the prayer of Elijah and close up the heavens so that there was no rain for three and a half years until Elijah prayed again and asked God to set the rain. Elijah was a man just like us.

It wasn't that he knew how to pray better or he knew all the magic words. He was an ordinary man that served an extraordinary God. A God who was powerful and a God who heard his prayers and answered them. My next example is King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah was a good king in the sense that he loved God and sought to serve him.

He wasn't always the smartest king and Israel suffered because of that at times. But it tells us that in those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live." This is not a message you want to hear from the prophet of God.

In the Old Testament if a prophet gave a false message, he was stoned to death. So you know that if the prophet of God comes to you and says, "Thus saith the Lord," he's pretty confident that that's what God has told him. So this prophet Isaiah comes to King Hezekiah and says, "Yeah, you're sick.

God says you're so sick that you're going to die. So get your affairs in order because you are going to be facing your maker face to face." In verse 2 it says that Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to God saying, "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what was good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

And it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, "Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.

Surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.'" I'm sure we all wish that all of our prayers were answered this quickly and with such a positive response. Here's Hezekiah. He's told by God, "You are sick and you're going to die.

Set your affairs in order." What is Hezekiah's response? He turns his face to the Lord and he cries out to him. He says, "God, please heal me." It says that before the prophet had even gotten to the middle court and unless Hezekiah had a huge chalice, this was within a few minutes, God speaks to his prophet and says, "Go and tell Hezekiah I've heard him.

And three days from now, he is going to be fully recovered and walking into the courtroom to worship me." God heard Hezekiah's request. He saw his sorrow and his pain and he responded to his request and healed him. So does prayer change things? Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, these are only a very few examples that we see in the Old Testament.

Some of them are even more dramatic. You have Joshua calling out to God and the sun stands still in the sky. I don't even know how God did that. He just kind of paused everything. But the sun stopped moving, which means the earth stopped moving. God does amazing, miraculous things.

His prophets raised people from the dead. The earth opened up and swallowed wicked men. Our God is a God who is powerful and He hears our voices when we call out to Him and He responds to our cries. I want to look at the New Testament now. Jesus is talking to His disciples about prayer and in John 14, He makes a pretty incredible statement.

In John 14, starting in verse 12, Jesus tells His disciples, "Most assuredly," so very, very truly, this isn't a casual statement, this is a very serious statement that you can take, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also." Let's just stop right there for a minute.

The works that Jesus did, if you believe in Him, you will do also. "And greater works than these He will do because I go to my Father and whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." Jesus tells His disciples that anything you ask in my name, I will give to you.

Does this mean that any request we make will be given to us? It kind of starts to sound like a genie in a bottle, doesn't it? What about when we ask for those things that are not good and not helpful for us? In James chapter 4, starting in verse 1, we're told, and this is James speaking to the church that is scattered abroad, he says, "Where do wars and fights come from among you?" Now, let's stop right there for a minute.

Who is James talking to? He's talking to believers. He says, "Why do you guys fight? Why is there conflict and friction when there should be unity in Christ?" He goes on, "Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have.

You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Believers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." What is James saying here? He says, "You guys are envious of each other and the things that you have. I want what she has because you don't have because you don't ask. But even when you ask, God doesn't give it to you because you're not asking out of a godly desire for the things of God.

You're wanting the pleasures of the world. And God has called us out of that. Friendship with the world is enmity against God. Do you remember before you were saved? Remember that verse we looked at this morning where he said, "Such were some of you." We were in the world, we were rebelling against God as we were living for the desires of the things here on earth.

We didn't desire any kind of relationship with God and he made us alive in him and changed our hearts, put a new heart within us so that now we're to desire the things of God. He says, "You're not desiring the things of God. You're still desiring the things of the world.

That's what you're going after. And when you ask for those things, God says, "No, because that's not good for you." When Jesus is talking to his disciples, there's a really important phrase in that verse. A lot of times we like to look just at whatever you ask, I will give you.

Well, we left out a little piece there, didn't we? It's a really important piece. Whatever you ask in my name, I will give to you. And this doesn't just mean that we close our prayers with, "In Jesus' name, amen." This goes a lot deeper than that. When we're told that whatever we ask in Jesus' name we will receive, it means that our requests find their source in the character and the person of Jesus.

The things we're asking for are the things that will bring God glory. In Psalm 37, verses 3 through 5, we're told, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness." Verse 4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart." You hear this verse a lot.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. If you want something, go delight yourself in the Lord and he's going to give it to you. It's kind of missing the point. It's not saying go to God and do a certain number of good works and that's going to earn you this petition that you're asking.

No. This goes right back to what we talked about this morning, doesn't it? It says, "Delight yourself in the Lord." Not in his blessings. Delight yourself in the person of your God. As we sit and we meditate on who he is, as we are saturated with the truth of his character from the word of God, it changes our hearts.

Do you ever notice that those you spend the most time with, maybe a good friend. I had a friend that was from the East Coast and she talked kind of different. What was really scary is the more time I spent with her, the more I started to talk like her.

It wasn't on purpose. I didn't think about it. No, I really like her accent. I want to try and talk like that. But because of the time that I spent with her, as we talked together, I just kind of absorbed parts of who she was and I started acting like her.

How much more does that happen to us with God because we're not just sitting and absorbing and spending time with him. His spirit is within us and we're told that we are being conformed into the image of Christ. We are being changed within. And so as we sit and we delight ourselves in the Lord, he gives us the desires of our heart.

But that doesn't just mean he grants our requests. It means that the desires we have in our hearts as we sit and delight in God, those are the desires that God has. Our heart becomes a reflection of his heart as we spend time delighting in him. And so then when we pray, the prayers we are giving to God are things that he desires for us because we are absorbed in his presence and we delight in the things he delights.

And that changes the things that we desire in our lives. So when we talk about asking in Jesus name, it's asking according to what Jesus would ask for. There is a slogan, it's still around I know, but for a while it was super, super popular. What would Jesus do?

Sought everywhere. What if we think of this as what would Jesus pray? Do you ever ask yourself that when you're praying? Would Jesus pray for this? What would Jesus pray for right now? When something happens, how would Jesus respond to that in prayer? That's essentially what this is saying.

Anything you ask in my name, we talk about being ambassadors for Christ. We're told that we are ambassadors for Christ. What does that mean? Well, an ambassador is a representative of a country, right? So for us, that means being representatives of Christ. In a sense, as we come before the Lord in our prayers, we say we are coming in the name of Jesus.

We are asking things that Jesus would ask. And when we do that, we will receive our requests. So if we're asking in Jesus name, we're delighting in the Lord. He's giving us the desires of our heart. Will there ever be a time that we make a request? And the answer is still no.

When we talked a little bit about Job this morning, and I'm kind of assuming you guys know a little bit about his story. But at the very beginning of the book of Job, you have Satan coming into the throne room of God. And God says to Job, he says, "Have you seen my servant Job?

He loves me." And Satan, and I am so loosely paraphrasing this, Satan says to God, "Well, you think he loves you, but really he just loves all the things you do for him. Look at how you bless the guy. He's rich, he's famous, he has all of these children, all of these lands.

If you took some of that stuff away, he wouldn't love you anymore." And God gives Satan permission to afflict Job. It starts with his possessions. Satan says, "If you took all his stuff away, he wouldn't love you anymore." God says, "Okay, I give you permission to take away the possessions of Job." And in one day, all of Job's possessions are gone.

Marauders come in, fires, it's a miraculous destruction. This man was very, very rich, and everything he had was taken away. And Job still praised God. And so Satan goes, "Well, I bet if you took his family away, then he'd see you for who you are." And God says, "Okay, I give you permission to take his family." And in one single day, I think he had like 12 children.

All of Job's children die. That's staggering. I can't imagine losing one child, much less all three of my children, much less if I had 12 children. And in one single day, they're all gone, inexplicably, for no reason. And still, Job trusts God. At this point, Satan has to be getting pretty frustrated.

This is not going the way he planned. But he's not ready to give up. He goes to God and he says, "Okay, well, if you let me afflict Job, if you let him suffer physically, then I bet he'd turn on you." And God allows Satan to afflict Job. He says, "You can't kill him, but you can afflict him." Job gets boils over his entire body.

He's in so much pain. He's sitting in the dust, taking broken pottery and scraping his skin. The only family member he has left is his wife. And she tells him, "Job, just curse God and die." Not the most encouraging thing she could have said. And there's part of me that thinks she was so horrified by the pain that Job was going through, she just wanted it to end for him.

Whatever she meant by it, can you imagine having your spouse tell you, "Just curse God and let it end." And Job is sitting there in the dust, and the only friends that come to him are those that are telling him, "Job, you must have done something wrong. God must be punishing you for some terrible, horrible sin that you've done." And Job sits there and goes, "There's nothing.

I've walked faithfully before God. I don't understand why he is letting this happen. Can you imagine?" Job, as each of these things occurs, as his possessions are taken away, he goes, "I don't understand why. God why didn't you protect me? But I trust you." His children die, and he cries out to God in pain and says, "God, why did you let this happen?" And then he sits and he suffers.

And he cries out to God and says, "Why are you letting this happen?" And he receives no response. As he sits here and he suffers, and then his friends come and tell him, "What is it you've done? Shame on you, Job." It isn't until Job starts to question the goodness of God and saying, "Why does God allow this?" that God comes and puts Job in his place.

And I think it's incredible because even at this point, God is not comforting Job. He tells Job, "Who do you think you are to question Almighty God?" In chapters, I don't have it here, it's towards the end, I think it's like 38 and 39, God declares to Job his awesome power.

And he says to Job, "Where were you when I made the foundations of the world? Who are you to question my goodness?" And as we saw this morning, when God's finished with Job, Job says, "Even if you slay me, I will trust you. I will trust you." At that point, God still hadn't done anything to change Job's circumstance.

And yet he chooses to trust God. At the very end of the book, Job's suffering ends. God blesses him, again gives him possessions, gives him many more children. But there was a long time in that book, in the story of Job, where he called out and there was no answer.

And even in that, he chose to trust in the faithfulness of God. We see another example where a godly, faithful man calls out in prayer and does not receive his petition. This one's in the New Testament. It's found in the Gospel of Mark. It's in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And the Son of God is on his knees, tells us he was in such agony that he was sweating drops of blood. The agony that the human body has to be under in order for blood to come out of your pores is incredible. That is the agony that Jesus was in as he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he cries out to his Father and he says in verse 35 that he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will." Apart from the physical suffering that Jesus went through on the cross, I think something that was far more on his heart in this moment was the fact that when all of our sin was put upon Jesus when he was hanging on the cross, he was separated from the Father.

He was separated from the Father. Never ever had Jesus been separated from the Father. The agony of that, that break in fellowship that we can so flippantly deal with sometimes caused Jesus such agony that even though he knew that the reason he came to earth was to die on the cross, when that hour came, that caused him such agony that he cried out and said, "Daddy, if there's any other way, take this away from me.

But I am going to submit to your will." And what was the Father's response? That cup did not pass from our Christ. And that in itself is such an affirmation that as Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." There is no other way that God could save mankind apart from the death of his Son.

If there was, this loving Father would have taken that cup from his Son. Sometimes when God doesn't give us the answer we want, we think, "Maybe I didn't pray right. Maybe I didn't earn God's blessing. Maybe I just haven't been good enough." Let me tell you, you will never be good enough.

But Jesus was. Jesus was perfect. Not only did he never ever sin against the Father, he also always did everything that was right. He never saw something and said, "Oh, I should really do something there, but I'm really tired." He always did what was right. And here he is in more agony than probably any of us will ever endure, asking one thing of the Father, and the Father says, "No." There are times when God gives us a response we don't want, and he has a good reason for it.

We may get to see that reason down the line. We may never know why he said no. But we can trust and submit because we know to whom we pray. It is our Father in heaven, the God of the universe, that when we cry it says he holds our tears in a bottle.

That's how precious your tears are to God. He collects them. There is never a moment that you're going through pain and you cry out to God and he goes, "I just don't have time right now." Or, "You know what, five minutes ago you really offended me." That's never how God responds to our prayers.

If we have cried out to him and he tells us no, he has a very good reason for it. And it isn't even just his glory, it's also for our good. God tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love him. Every single thing he allows in your life is for your good.

Every single thing that he denies you in your life is for your good. You do not earn God's favor. It has been freely given to you because of the work that Jesus did in the garden, on the cross. He earned our favor with God. And when God hears our prayers, it is with that favor, it is in the name of Jesus that we enter the throne room.

And he views your petitions as if they are coming from his son Jesus. Hebrews 5, verse 7 and 8 says that Jesus, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

We will not always get the answer we want, but it will always be an answer that is given by a loving father who is never incapable of helping us or unwilling to help us. So when he gives us, know it's for a very good reason. So how do we respond when we don't get the response that we want from our prayers?

We have to fall back to remembering who we're praying to. Psalm 55, verse 17 says, "Evening and morning and noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice." Down in verse 22 he goes on, "Cast your burden on the Lord and he shall sustain you." He shall sustain you, whether he chooses to deliver you from the situation you're in or he chooses to have you go through it, he will sustain you.

He doesn't just say, "I'm sorry, you have to go through this." Even in the garden it tells us that angels came and ministered to Jesus and strengthened him. God will sustain us in whatever he chooses to have us go through. Isaiah 55, verse 9 says, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." This really reminds me again of our story in Job.

Who are we to question the mind of God? His thoughts, his ways are beyond our understanding. And so understanding and trusting that even though I don't know what the goals of God in this situation are, I can still trust him. C.H. Spurgeon said this and one of our sisters shared it with our women a couple years ago and it has just stuck in my mind and it's brought to my remembrance so often.

He said, "Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there." I'm going to read that again. Had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there.

That means that if there were any situation that would be better for you, more for your good, more for your glory than where you are right now, God would have put you there. Which means that wherever you are right now, whatever situation you find yourself in, good or bad, God puts you there for a purpose.

It is not an accident that you are where you are right now. God's love placed you there. Jude 1 verse 20 and 21 says, "Beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." We need to keep ourselves in the love of God.

He never lets us go, but sometimes our mind and our heart is elsewhere, isn't it? Even though our position is secure, we're not living in it. We're doubting the goodness of God. We're looking to the things of the world to give us pleasure. We need to keep ourselves in the love of God.

Remember how we talked about the foundation of our faith, that it isn't just enough to believe. One, it needs to be something worthy of believing in, but it needs to be truth that we find in God's Word. And so when we come to Him and we pray, understanding the truth of who God is and the fact that sometimes for our good He's going to say no, that's important for us to know and to remember.

Because if we do, then in those trials, in those times when things happen that aren't comfortable, that are painful, that we want to go away and God's not changing it, we're okay because we remember who God is and that He loves us. Paul had a situation in his life and we don't know exactly what it was.

Some think it was a physical ailment. Some think it was enemies that were getting in the way of him sharing the gospel. But it was something that continued on and on and on and just was not going away. And he tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, starting in verse 8, Paul said that concerning this thing, this trial, this pain in his life, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of God may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." Paul says, "I would rather go through difficult circumstances so that I can see God's strength working in me." He asked God over and over and over again to take it from him.

And God said, "No. Lean on me for strength in the midst of this. My strength is sufficient for you. You don't need to be strong. You need to rely on my strength in the midst of this." Paul knew who God was. He accepted the fact that God's mind and God's purposes were different than his.

He trusted in the goodness of God. And he said, "Okay. I would rather continue to suffer so that God is glorified in me, that as I am weak, I see God's strength working through me." His perception of God was based in truth. Timothy Keller said, "Your prayer must be firmly connected to and grounded in your reading of the Word.

This wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God." Sometimes we lose sight of the real God and we start to make him in the image we want him to be. It's important that we are anchored in truth. Mr. Keller continues, "Without immersion in God's words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow, but also untethered from reality.

We may not be responding to the real God, but to what we wish God and life to be like." It's so important that we remember who our God is. He is our loving Father. He is all-powerful and able to accomplish his purposes. And there are times that we have to accept that his purposes are not our purposes and to submit to his will as our Lord and King.

But even in that, Philippians 4 verse 6 tells us, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." When our understanding of God is tethered in the reality of his word, when we come to him with our petitions, with our supplications, we can do so with thanksgiving, and God's peace will guard our hearts from fear and anger and frustration because we are trusting in him.

David says in Psalm 62 verse 8, "Trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us." This is not someone who had an easy life. We've talked a little bit about it, but he had some very dark times as he was being wickedly pursued by his King.

He doesn't just say, "Trust in God sometimes." He says, "Trust in him at all times. He is always a refuge for you. Even as he causes you to walk through a trial, he is still a refuge in the midst of that trial." We have to trust in who God is.

And that isn't just an intellectual assent. It's something that we feel. When we trust in God and his peace is ruling in our hearts, it changes the way we feel, too. E.M. Bowne said it this way, "Trust is faith become absolute, ratified, consummated. There is, when all is said and done, a sort of venture in faith and its exercise.

But trust is firm belief. It is faith in full flower. Trust is a conscious act, a fact of which we are sensible. Trust like life is feeling, though much more than feeling. An unfelt life is a contradiction, and an unfelt trust is a misnomer, a delusion, a contradiction. Trust is the most felt of all attributes.

It is in all feeling, and it works only by love. An unfelt love is as impossible as an unfelt trust." If you say that you love someone, but there's no feeling of love in your heart, is it really love? He says, "The same is true with trust. Trust is that peace and that rest, emotionally as well as intellectually, that we have as we recognize who God is, that he's worthy of our faith, and then we rest in him.

We trust in him because of who he is and what he has done." Even as we trust him, when it seems like our prayers aren't being answered, sometimes part of the reason that God lets us go through those things is to bring us to our knees, bring us to him because he wants to accomplish something, not in our circumstance, but in us.

Sometimes God lets us go through difficulty and pain to draw us near to himself. Second Corinthians 4, verse 16 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Sometimes the work that God is doing is inside of us. We're not to look to the things that are seen.

It's so much easier to look to the things that are seen because they're right in front of us. But this life is a vapor. That means it passes so fast. But after this life, we have our true life. We have eternity. That is what we're to be looking toward.

So that even if in this life, and this light affliction that Paul's talking about is not what we would consider light affliction. He was stoned to death. He was shipwrecked. He was whipped and beaten. He considers those light afflictions that are working for him a far more exceeding weight of glory.

Is that how we look at our difficulties? Do we see them as an opportunity for God to work in us? Whether it's through building our faith and our trust in him by seeing him work mightily on our behalf, or whether it's teaching our hearts to trust, to rest, to wait patiently on him, to trust that in the midst of our difficulty, he is our loving father.

And if there were any better place for us to be, he would have put us there. Do we trust in the love and the power of our father? So does prayer change things? Absolutely. Our prayers do change things. Sometimes it's going to be our circumstances. As God responds to us as he did to Hezekiah and heals him, sometimes he's going to respond as he did to Jesus, where he strengthened him and sustained him through it.

But prayer always changes things. First Peter 1, verses 6-9 says, "In this you greatly rejoice." So not a little bit of joy, but greatly rejoicing. "Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love.

Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." So whether God changes your circumstances or whether he uses your circumstances to change you, our prayers do change things. So as we close, I just pray that we remember as we approach prayer that our Heavenly Father is powerful.

He is able to accomplish his purposes. Wherever ever is he thwarted, that prayer is more than accessing the throne room when we need something. So much richer than that. It is our opportunity to spend time with our God, to explore the relationship that we have with him, to get to know him better, to delight in his presence.

And so important that when we pray, it's informed by the word of God. Otherwise it's just words. When we pray, it has to be from the truth of what God has shown us in his word. And be so very confident that when you pray, it makes changes. Prayer does change things.

The prayer of a righteous woman avails much. There's a hymn, you don't hear it very often anymore, it's called "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." I want to go ahead and read it to you. I'm definitely not going to sing it to you. I'll do that to your lovely ladies.

I want you to think about what this says. I am not familiar with Joseph Scriven, I can barely say his name. But I can imagine what went on in his life that gave him the confidence to write these words and the regret of the times that he did not avail himself of prayer.

He says, "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials or temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden? Humbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield you. You will find solace there." Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can come boldly into your throne room, that the welcome there will never change because it has been earned through the blood of Jesus.

Father, may we exercise that privilege of prayer so much more than we have before. May we recognize more the richness of that privilege. May we delight in your presence, Father. And Lord, in those times where as our Father you say no, I ask that you would help us to rest and trust in you.

May we see our affliction as light and temporary. Something that is working for us an eternal weight of glory. And may we never ever forget that whatever situation we're in, we are there because you placed us there. Because you love us. And you have a purpose and you have a plan.

Help us to trust in that, Father. I ask that you would continue to go before these women, Lord, as they spend their time in small group, as they go home again to the everyday. May your words continue to dwell in their hearts, to affect their hearts and their lives.

Lord, we thank you that you prayed to the Father and that you have sent the Spirit into our hearts. May we always cry out, "Abba, Father." We ask these things in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.