Lisa Barry: Someone listening to me right now has been struggling with prayer for years. You've read a half dozen books on the subject, you've listened to sermons, and still you flounder. Is there any hope? What is the secret to effectual prayer that gets results?

All this week on Gateway To Joy Elisabeth Elliot has been offering practical ideas about how to transform our prayer lives into radiant, fruit bearing discipline. She'll wrap up this important series today with a word about the importance of faith in prayer. It's all coming up next, so stay with us for this Friday edition of Gateway To Joy.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says, "and underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talks today on that wonderful subject--but difficult subject--called prayer.

All of us, surely everyone listening to me, at some time in his or her life has tried to pray. And some of you have given up praying, and you've just decided that God doesn't listen to your prayers and you're not good enough or something. Well none of us are good enough, of course. The Lord Jesus Christ was good enough and yet for Him, too, the answer was "no."

You remember the story of Jesus in the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to His Father "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Meaning the cup of suffering, which He knew He was about to undergo. And the Lord said "no." Jesus, the Son of God, was willing to receive that answer from His Father. He said, "If it be possible let this cup pass." It was not possible. He said, "If it is not possible...nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done."

And as you and I pray, perhaps getting down on our knees, perhaps working, or driving in the car, or lying in bed, or sitting in a wheelchair, wherever we may be, we can ask the Lord anything we want to--remembering that the answer may be "no."

"Praying in Faith and the Will of God" is the title of one of these chapters in Terry Glaspey's book, Pathway to the Heart of God. "Faith is an essential ingredient in the life of prayer. Withhold faith, prayer is meaningless. If we don't believe that God will meet us in prayer then our prayer is no more than an internal dialog that we hold with ourselves. It's not always easy to believe. There are many forces within us and in the culture around us that would discourage us from believing.

"It's also hard to believe when we can't see immediate and verifiable results. But that's what faith is--the unwillingness to be limited to what we can see and the willingness to believe that there's a reality deeper than the seeing world that we participate in every day. Faith causes us to look for answers deeper than those available in the earthly realm. It's the trust that God will act on our behalf, whether it be for the salvation of our souls or the meeting of our practical needs. We must believe in our hearts that God not only cares about us, but that He is capable of reaching out to answer our prayers. It's this confidence that we should have when we come before Him, such confidence and trust in pleasing God."

Some time ago we heard a wonderful story about a young man who, as he was driving home, felt that God was telling him that he should go and buy a gallon of milk. Now the last thing in the world that he needed at that point was a gallon of milk. And it was late at night and he just thought, "Could this possibly be God speaking to me?"

He had just come from meeting in a church where he realized that those people really believe that God was speaking to them. He never had been real sure that God did things like that, and he had asked them. He said, "Does God really speak to people nowadays?" And they had said yes. So here he is driving along in his car close to midnight, as though God Himself is saying, "Go to the store and buy a gallon of milk."

Well, he argued with God. "This is crazy," he said, "I don't need a gallon of milk. What am I supposed to do with it?" And God was saying, "Buy the gallon of milk." Well, what did he do? He went to the store and bought a gallon of milk, got back in the car. He said, "Lord, what am I supposed to do with this?"

He found himself in a section that he didn't really expect to find himself in. And he pulled the car over to the curb, sat there arguing with God some more and saying, "Is there somebody here that needs this gallon of milk? They're going to think I'm crazy. At this hour of the night, am I supposed to ring the doorbell and take a gallon of milk to them. What if they don't need it?"

Well, God won. And this young man got out of his car with the gallon of milk. Walked to the door that was closest to where he had parked, knocked on the door. A man came to the door and this young man said, "I have brought you a gallon of milk." The man burst into tears. My wife and I have a sick baby. We didn't have any milk left, we prayed that God would give it to us."

Does prayer work? It certainly does. Does it always work the way we want it to? It certainly does not. "Prayer is the key of heaven. Faith is the hand that turns it." Now say that again. Say it with me. "Prayer is the key of heaven. Faith is the hand that turns it."

E. M. Bounds wrote, "The possibilities of prayer are the possibilities of faith. Prayer and faith are Siamese twins. One heart animates them both. Faith is always praying. Prayer is always believing."

And Fran?ois F?nelon, whose writings have been a great blessing in my life, he was a French counselor back in, I think, the 1700's. He said, "He who prays without confidence cannot hope that his prayers will be granted."

And John Calvin said, "The principle exercise which the children of God have is to pray. For in this way they give a true proof of their faith, and prayer in the inevitable outcome of the presence of faith in the human heart. For wherever faith exists, prayer cannot be sluggish."

"Blessed Savior, where would I be without You? You are my Rock in times of trouble, an eternal spring of refreshment in a dry and weary land, the One who will hold me up when I'm near collapse. You draw near to me in my darkest hours and set me free from the traps I have constructed for myself. Just knowing that You are with me brings light and hope and peace, even in times of darkness, despair and turmoil. Because of Your care for me, I rest secure."

Brother Lawrence was a man who wanted to become holy. And he was convinced that God could somehow make him holy if He would let him go into a monastery where he would be able to pray all day long. But when he reached the monastery, to his surprise, he was sent to the kitchen to wash pots. Brother Lawrence was appalled. How was he going to become a great saint, learning to pray, if he was in the kitchen of the monastery where there was lots of heat. There were people rushing back and forth, and there were clatter of pots and pans, and hard work and sweat. What would this possibly have to do with his sanctification?

But Brother Lawrence himself told us in a little book called Practicing the Presence of God, that it was in that monastery kitchen that he learned to practice the presence of God. Even with people yelling at him, and all the heat, and the noise, and the confusion, and the mistakes that people were making, and the things that he had to dish out, and the pots that he had to scrub. It was moment by moment that he learned to practice the presence of God.

Do you think you could call that prayer? You housewives, do you practice the presence of God by praying while you're cooking? It's possible to do that, you know. I find that God often reminds me to pray in the midst of some other task. I may be sitting at my typewriter, or writing letters to someone, or cutting up onions for supper or lunch, but I've discovered that every now and then the Holy Spirit whispers to me, "It's time to pray."

I don't have to stop cutting up the onions in order to pray. And Brother Lawrence had to do the work that he was assigned to do. But it was in that situation, so far from what he had expected, that he began to practice the presence of God. "There is no mode of life in the world," he said, "more pleasing and more full of delight than continual conversation with God." That's amazing, isn't it? "Continual conversation with God."

Perhaps one of the most desperate prayers ever prayed was by a man who was on horseback. He fell off his horse and the word was, "Betwixt the stirrup and ground, he mercy sought, he mercy found. Beneath the stirrup and ground, he mercy sought, he mercy found." Which tells us that God's ear is always open. So as he was just literally falling out of the saddle, before he hit the ground, he received God's mercy.

Don't hesitate to pray. God bless you.

Lisa Barry: If you've been motivated to give prayer another try in your life, then let me offer some food for thought. A great book that will give you ideas on things you can pray about is one Elisabeth has written called Keep a Quiet Heart. She's been where you are and she knows what a challenge the discipline of prayer can be. That's why she's put down on paper some of the things that have helped her over the years. The wonderful thing about this book is that it covers a variety of subjects and points out that in every situation our response should be the same--to seek God at all times through prayer.

And for a limited time, when you purchase the book Keep a Quiet Heart, we'll also send along a bonus booklet entitled "And When You Pray." It's our way of saying thanks for your interest and support. The cost of Keep a Quiet Heart is $14.50. You can send that amount along with your request to:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE, 68501. Or, call toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. A third option is our Web site at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible and people like you make it possible.

Monday, Elisabeth begins a new series on how to scale back to a simpler lifestyle. This is Lisa Barry. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend.