Second Friend Day - Elmer Towns

"Maybe tomorrow."
He'd get so excited, he couldn't wait for the postman to come. When we pray, we have to
believe the answer is coming. "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). The sincerity of our
faith determines the answers we get. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he
is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).
A small boy asked his mother for a quarter every Saturday to go downtown. Twenty-five
cents paid for the streetcar, popcorn and a cold drink. He never asked for a dollar because he felt
she wouldn't give it. But he didn't know that his mother was giving him a lot more than a dollar
to take care of his needs. He asked for what he felt she would give him, twenty-five cents. She
never turned him down. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed" (James 1:6). Therefore, it's obvious some of
us need more faith, not more time in prayer. Therefore we ask, "How do we get more faith?"
One way is to pray for it. Faith is sending off the coupon, then going to the mailbox every day
looking for the answer. Expect answers from God. Build yourself a spiritual mailbox. "I got a
reply this morning," you can tell your friends.
7. Your prayers are not answered if you don't ask in Christ's name. "And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If
ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" (Jn. 14:23:14). When a son borrows a gasoline
credit card, he gets gasoline in his father's name. He pulls into the service station and yells, "Fill
'er up!" When they present him the bill, he gives them his father's credit card and signs in his
father's name. In the same way, we go to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Recently, a
minister prayed, "Lord, if you loved me enough to give me your Son to die on Calvary, I want
you to give me two souls when I preach this morning." All authority is given to Jesus and He
allows us to use it.
A small boy went to the corner store and ordered a loaf of bread, a quart of milk, a pound
of bologna and six cold drinks.
"Did your mother send you for all that?" the skeptical grocer questioned the young boy.
"Yes sir, my mother wants all of that stuff."
"Did your mother ask for the six cold drinks?" asked the wise man, knowing the poor
family might not squander money on soft drinks. He didn't give the boy the drinks, knowing that
when he got halfway home he would drink them with his friends. When you pray in Jesus' name,
you better be sure that Jesus sent you. Many times we don't get answers to our prayers, even if
we pray in Jesus' name, because it is not God's will.
8. Your prayers are not answered if your motives are not right. When we come to
God and pray, our desires must be pure. The Bible tells us that we do not get our answers
because of our lusts (selfish desires). "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may
consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3).