Give me 5 minutes a day and I'll give you a happier, more successful life

I’m not going to tell you that you will get everything you want through prayer. No, I’m going to tell you about something even better.  You will get everything God wants for you through prayer because God wants the best for you.  He wants even better things for you than you do. God loves you much more than you love yourself and wants you to have joy and peace even more than you do. You will get everything you want through prayer if it is God’s will and you have faith. Faith is the key to answered prayer, but it takes months, years to develop.

Yes, it’s true:  You will experience powerful answers to prayer if you use the guidelines for prayer found in the Bible.   We’ll explore these guidelines as we travel this prayer journey together.  It is said we use less than 10% of our brainpower; but I think it’s very safe to say that most Christians use less than 10% of their prayer power. I have been in many churches across the United States and I find that most people don’t understand the power of prayer. Why is it that some churches see remarkable answers to prayer and others do not?   Perhaps you know some Christians who have very powerful prayer lives.  Yet others, who seem to be “good Christians” do not. Those believers with powerful prayer lives have learned and practice what the Bible says about how to have a powerful prayer life.  After you read this book, you’ll know the secret, too.

This is from my book Amazing Power of Prayer. Writing this book changed my prayer life for the better. I am amazed at the ideas I found in the Bible and explained by many different people in many books that show that faith is a key to answered prayer. After learning how to strengthen my faith I see many more answers to prayer. Not only that, but I found ideas that make life a whole lot more fun and happy and I included them in this book. This month, every penny of profit from my books will be used to spread God’s love around the world, through this blog and face book. This blog reaches 180 of the 191 countries in the world with ideas that make life better. Want to help spread the word? Buy the book and the profit will be used to help people around the world.

Click to see the book Amazing Power of Prayer on Amazon.com

I know many people reading this are in debt for your house and your car and maybe some other things. Maybe you are having trouble making the payments and having enough left over to put food on the table. Suddenly one day you get a letter that says a distant relative that you never knew had died and left you $200,000. How would you feel? Of course, you would feel happy, joyful.
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If you knew that you were getting the money, even if you didn’t know exactly when you would get the money you would feel happy. Sometimes it takes a long time for the inheritor to get the money because it is often tied up in probate court for about a year or more.
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But the point is if you really believed the money was coming you would feel happy. The happiness shows that you really believe the money is yours.
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In the same way, if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills and you pray for help, if you really believe God will help you, you will feel happy. The happiness, the joy, is an indication that you really do have faith.
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Many people who have accomplished great things in life, like starting charities, businesses, repairing relationships, helping others, etc. say that they used faith to achieve their goals. Not only that, they say that you have to feel it. You have to feel the joy of knowing that God will help you. The joy is evidence that you have faith.
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If you know me well, you will know that my wife and I are working to start a charity for street kids. We are praying that the resources we need will come to us. We take action. We pray. We thank God that He is moving the way He helped with another charity I did in the past.
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There are many ways to make extra money these days. I have talked with people who used some of these methods part time and they have done very well. We found a company started by Christians who give unlimited free training. It is a great blessing. Thank you God!

How do we know we have faith for answered prayer?

You might not believe everything I say here, but read the whole thing and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

God’s will is important

Obviously God’s will is the most important factor in answered prayer. Since that is so obvious I won’t discuss it here.

Faith is important

Several dozen times Jesus said that faith is a key to answered prayers. God’s will is the most important factor. But why did Jesus only talk about God’s will a few times and he talked about the importance of faith several dozen times? I think it is because he wants us to know that we have to do our part.

Why does God consider faith so important? The Bible says we go to heaven based on faith, not works.  Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…”   Faith and love are the very most important things in our lives.

But someone might say, what if it is not God’s will to help me? That shows he doesn’t  have faith that his prayer will be answered.

If we pray to make a good grade on a test, we can’t just pray, we have to study. We have to take action. We have to do something. God normally doesn’t help with that kind of a prayer unless we do our part.

But what if we are sick and we have done all  that we can to get well. We eat right, exercise, see a doctor, take medicine and still don’t get well? That is when God steps in and helps. Jesus said to the sick woman who had the flow of blood for many years: “Your faith has healed you.” Matthew 9:22. Also, Jesus healed the blind and told them their faith healed them. Luke 18:42.

Why didn’t Jesus say that God healed them, why did he say their faith healed them? I believe it is because he wanted them to know they had to do their part. They had to have faith.

How do I know I have prayer-faith?

Think about a person who is deeply in debt and can’t pay his bills. One day a rich man decides to not only pay his bills but also to give him a million dollars. How would the poor man feel? Well, it probably depends on whether or not the poor man really believes the rich man is going to help him. If he really believes the financial help will come to him, he will feel happy and relieved. His worry and negative feelings will go away completely.

You would know if the poor man believed or not by his feelings. In the same way, we can check our feelings to see if we really believe God is going to answer our prayer. If we are in dire straits financially and can’t pay our bills, we can pray for help. If we are sick, we can pray. If we are filled with joy because we know God will help, that shows that we have faith that God is going to help.

Your resume reflects the very best of everything you have done, all your many strengths, accomplishments and successes.

But what does your anti-resume look like? All your weaknesses, failures and disappointments. These are things that probably only you know about, things that you would have never discussed with your parents, friends or colleagues. The jobs you did not get. The projects that failed. The rejections. The schools that did not accept you. The missed deadlines. The embarrassments.

And yet, these failures and weaknesses probably did more to shape you into the person you are today and the person you will become than your successes and accomplishments. I know mine did.

So make sure you know what your anti-resume looks like. Sadly, you will keep adding to that anti-resume throughout your career. My anti-resume continues to grow every day!