Second Friend Day - Elmer Towns

does not mean to hang onto God. When a branch is hanging onto the vine, it usually withers.
When the branch is growing with the vine, it prospers and has fruit. Just as the branch allows the
life-giving sap to flow through it, the Christian who abides in the Bible allows the Holy Spirit to
control him. When you abide in the Bible, you allow its words to flow through you. You are
yielded.
Prayer is talking to God; Bible study is allowing God to talk to you. Since God is much
more important, we ought to allow God to do most of the talking. We allow important people to
do most of the talking and we ask them only the important questions. So when we allow God to
speak to our hearts through the Bible, we have a prepared heart to ask the right request.
5. Your prayers are hindered if you don't pray according to His will. God has a will
which is His desire for us. It is God's will that we pray for the things He wants us to have. Little
Roscoe looked forward to a visit from his Uncle Herman who always brought candy. But the lad
had to ask for it. Sometimes his little fingers went rummaging through his uncle's pockets to find
the candy. It gave Uncle Herman as much happiness to give the candy as it did for Roscoe to
find it. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to His
will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him" (I Jn. 4:14-15).
We must pray according to God's will. Once a ministerial student prayed outside of
God's will. While going through Bible college, he prayed for money. There was a hole-in-one
contest at a nearby golf course and every person who hit the ball in the cup got $200. The
student prayed that God would help him make a hole-in-one. He knelt on the golf tee and asked
God to guide his swing. None of the balls went in the cup. This was not God's way of providing
for his financial needs. There was the element of gambling in the contest. Also, the student
enjoyed playing golf and wanted some glory for getting a hole-in-one.
How can you know the things you ask are His will? Certain things are obviously God's
will, such as getting people saved. The Bible says so. God wants everyone saved (II Peter 3:9).
If you are not certain an item is God's will, how can you expect the Holy Spirit to guide you?
God doesn't hide His will like a needle in a haystack. "All right, dig in and find it." It is not
God's nature to frustrate His children. However, we may have to go through several doors to get
answers to prayer. To get from the church sanctuary to a Sunday School room, we may have to
go through several doorways. Some doors are open, others we have to push open. God tests our
sincerity. We need to go through each open door as it appears. It may take a while to get an
answer to prayer. But we should pray with confidence Eke a man walking through the backyard,
knowing where he is going. Our heavenly Father doesn't play games with us, hiding His will like
Easter eggs, hoping we will find them.
6. Y our prayers are not answered if you do not pray with faith. Faith is expecting
the answer. A school boy sent coupons off for magic rings, code books and other trinkets. Every
day he'd run to ask the mailman," Did it come today?"
"Not today," the postman would say.