Following Jesus and receiving from Him is so profoundly simple that it is difficult for us to understand. Perhaps that's why so few Christians receive answers to their prayers - it's just too easy. We have a tendency to complicate things, thinking that the harder the instructions the more likely they will work (IKEA excluded). This thinking has robbed countless people of the blessings God had for them. For proof, read the story of Naaman the Leper. His healing was going to be too easy, so he tried to talk himself out of it.

Carefully read the New Testament and one thing becomes abundantly clear...Receiving from the Lord should be as easy as asking -

Matthew 21:22  "all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

James 1:5  "let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 4:2,3 "You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

I John 3:22 "and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."

These are just a few of the many promises that we will receive from the Lord when we pray. But someone may ask, "Don't these promises all have conditions that must be met for the prayer to be answered? Therefore, isn't that what makes it hard??"

Let's look at the conditions. James and Matthew said we need to have faith and believe when we pray. James added having a righteous motive was also necessary. John says we must keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing to Him. So we could sum up the conditions with, "Have faith, keep a pure heart, and live holy". Keep reading and Jesus will show us how easy this is.

JESUS SECRET TO ANSWERED PRAYER

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." (John 15:7)

Jesus' prayers were answered for the same reason as ours will be - He kept the conditions stated above. But do you know how He did it? He didn't try to have faith when a crisis occurred. He didn't attempt to get a pure heart when He needed a prayer answered. Living holy and set-apart for the Father wasn't something He did when He wanted something. No. Jesus lived (to Abide) in the Father. He never left.

When we abide in Jesus as He did the Father, we won't have to look for faith. It is born of our relationship with Him which causes us to clearly hear His voice. We live holy because we love Him. Our heart is pure because we want to please Him. The problem with most religious people is that they are "Sunday morning Christians". God is something they do for a couple of hours on Sunday then they set Him aside. When trouble comes they are perplexed that they can't find Him. Living somewhere two hours a week is "visiting" not "abiding"!

If we abide in Jesus, our prayers will be answered as powerfully as His were. So how do we do it?

ABIDING IN THE VINE

Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5) That's pretty simple. Abide in Him and you will bear fruit and get your prayers answered. Don't and you will crash into the fence in the backyard of life.




     (Look at that Fruit!)