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 We’ve all done it. A call drops, but we keep talking. Sometimes it takes a few seconds and sometimes it takes a few minutes, but eventually, we realize no one is listening. 

Few things can be as frustrating or make us feel as foolish as recognizing we aren’t being heard. It’s the reason we cringe when customer service transfers us for the sixth time, and it’s the reason many of us struggle with prayer. We pour our hearts out to God, but we wonder: 

Is God listening? How do I know He heard me? 

Daniel can relate. When Daniel found himself in a difficult situation, he humbled himself and prayed. When Daniel didn’t get an immediate answer, he fasted and prayed some more. It wasn’t easy, but Daniel kept calling out to God the same way we keep calling back when an important call gets dropped. 

The difference between calling God and calling another person is that God never loses touch with us.

We all want our prayers to work. So what prayers are guaranteed to work? In discovering which prayers are effective, we can start with Jesus’s astonishing promise to all of us in John 15:7. Here’s his promise to his followers: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Ask whatever you desire! What an astonishing, open-ended promise to boost our prayer lives. But it’s given parameters by what makes for an effective prayer life.
 
Did you catch that? “If my word abides in you.” 

Reading the Word of God daily and praying prayers based on the Bible verses does a few things:

When the Word abides in us
1.    It helps us to have a humble view of ourselves
2.    It encourages an exalted view of the Savior
3.    It is one of the keys that allow us to triumph over the devil
4.    It gives us assurance of our election
5.    It is the power of holiness

Having the word of God abide with us and abide in us helps us become the kind of people who will pray in tune with God and hear the promise: “ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
God is working and we can trust Him, even when it seems like nothing is happening. Take heart in knowing God hears you and is working all things, even the hard things, together for your good Romans 8:28  


Would you commit the next 29 days to praying scripture? 


We ask some of the Members of GCC to help demonstrate praying scripture by recording a prayer for the church in this journal. 


You will see:
1.    Some verses to read
2.    A prayer from a church member
3.    An area to record your own prayer
4.    A list of adult church members to pray for


After 29 days you will have prayed for every member of the church by name and every member of the church will have prayed for you by name!
 

We encourage you to daily document a prayer in our app. (GCC app: www.gccob.com/app)

Log in and click “29 days”. 
This prayer should be a prayer for the church members list for that day. 
If you have a specific request, you can use our Members Facebook group.

A few tips on praying daily: 
1.    Find a quiet place.
2.    Read the passage a few times. 
3.    List or circle any commands to follow, promises to claim or characteristics of God.
4.    As you think about the verse write a prayer to God.
5.    Review the prayers you wrote and write a date next to answered prayers.

You will also find a playlist on Spotify to listen to as you are prayer or during the day as you meditate on the days verse: 29 days of prayer playlist:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2tiJkv0AelkQtnDN42gNjD?si=90000d3883e04704

 

Download the journal below, or pick one up this Sunday.

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