Prayer

I am reading a book called "A Gospel Primer for Christians" by Milton Vincent.  Its a great book and I am learning a lot.   One chapter is on prayer.  It brought out some excellent points and I'd like to share them with you.  The author points out that when God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world, He didn't just choose me to be holy and blameless before Him, He also chose me to be before Him in love  (Eph 1:4).  Prayer is actually me doing just that.  God enjoys it when I come before Him in prayer.  One of the reasons that Christ died on the cross was to make it possible for us to pray to God. That is an amazing thought!   In the book of Hebrews, God says multiple times to draw near to Him.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 God says to pray without ceasing.  God desires believers to come before Him in praise and worship and also in prayer.  He wants us to cast our burdens on Him, thank Him for working in our lives, and anything else that comes up in our lives.  Sometimes I don't pray about things that are on my mind because I'm afraid to let God know what they are.  But He is intimately aware of everything that is going on and how I feel about them, so it is foolishness to try and "keep it from Him".   Sometimes I feel like God isn't listening when I pray.  I pray and pray for or about something but, nothing seems to be happening.  But the Bible says we can be sure as believers that He hears our prayers.  Someone once told me that God always answers our prayers with a yes, no, or wait.  I know I have prayed for things in the past that I'm glad now He didn't grant.  I've also been told that sometimes God wants to give us something but, He wants us to ask for it first.  Its just like an earthy father who maybe wants to take his kids to a movie or other special thing but, he desires his kids to ask him so that he can make them happy and tell them yes.  The Bible says that God desires to give good gifts to His children.  Jesus said that if a child asks his earthly father for bread, he won't give him a rock. And since God is without sin, how much more will He give us good things when we ask.    I guess it all comes down to trust and keeping our eyes on the Lord. Someday all believers will be eternally with the Lord and He will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more sin.  No more running the "rat race" or experiencing pain.  I think about Heaven a lot and I tell myself that this life is like a vapor, and soon I will be with the Lord.  All that really matters is that we are saved from the power of death by Jesus' payment on the cross for our sins.  Eternity in Heaven is a lot longer than even 70 or 80 years on earth.  One of the verses to the song Amazing Grace says it well:  "when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise then when we first begun"