Mike Barnicle, a former columnist for the Boston Globe and more recently with the New York Daily News, tells about a baby born to Mary Teresa Hickey and her husband in 1945. The parents came from Cork, Ireland. The baby was a Down’s Syndrome boy. Mary Teresa held the baby tightly, saying, “He’s ours and we love him. He is God’s chosen one.”

The family lived in the Dorchester section of Boston. Their other boy was Jimmy. The dad died young of a heart attack, and Mary was left to raise the two boys, nine-year-old Jimmy and seven-year-old Danny. To pay the rent she scrubbed floors at a chronic care hospital.

Jimmy took good care of Danny. Dan felt at home with all the kids because no one told him he was different. Then one day, as they were boarding a trackless trolley, some strange kids shouted, “No morons on the bus!” That was the day Jimmy Hickey learned to fight. It was also the day Jimmy decided to be a priest. Little Danny attended the Kennedy school in Brighton and eventually obtained a job.

In 1991, Mary Teresa Hickey died at age ninety-one after showering her sons with unyielding love all their lives. Father Jim Hickey had been a priest for thirty years. In every parish to which he was assigned, Danny went along with him. The people were favored with both men.

In October 1997, Danny was in the hospital. His fifty-two-year-old body was failing. One night when ordinary people were eating supper, watching a ball game or going to a movie, a simple story of brotherly love played itself out at the bedside of a man who never felt sorry for himself or thought he was different.

Father Jim held his brother and asked, “Do you trust me, Danny?”

“I trust you.”

“You’re going to be OK.”

“I be OK.”

Eight hundred people stood in line at his wake. Parishioners packed the church for his funeral. They sang and cried and prayed. Later that day, Daniel Jeremiah Hickey was gently laid beside his parents at New Calvary cemetery. The granite headstone bore his name and the inscription: “God’s Chosen.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for your promise that you are preparing a place in Heaven for all who have accepted you as their Lord and Savior and have put their trust in you. All of these are your chosen ones too. Thank you for this blessed hope knowing that when our time on earth is over, we will go to be with you in Heaven and live with you forever. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

NOTE: To discover how you can be a chosen one of God, be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/christian.

1. Jesus in John 14:1-3 (NIV)

2. Reverend Dr. Gary Nicolosi, Sermon: “God’s Chosen.”

Pray specifically. Recently I had a need for office equipment and asked God to show me how to get the needed funds that month! That night I was unable to sleep so I got up and worked on balancing my finances. To my amazement, I found a mistake in my favor and was able to order the equipment the next day!

Pray persistently. Not all prayers get answered so quickly. I have prayed for some things for years before getting an answer. If our prayer is legitimate, sometimes we need to be as persistent as Jacob, who once said to God, “I will not let you go until you have blessed me.”⁷ Jesus Himself said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”⁸ The principle is to keep on asking and seeking until you receive.

Pray in harmony with God’s will. As today’s Scripture says, “If we ask anything according to God’s will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him.”⁶

High on God’s priorities for us is our growth and maturity. Prayers in harmony with this principle, and with all of God’s will, will always be effective. Prayers outside his will are denied.

Pray sincerely. “Do you want to be made well?” was Jesus’ question. In other words, if we want God to answer our prayers, we have to want the answer enough to be willing to pay the price. For instance, if we want to grow in faith, love, patience, perseverance, and maturity, we need to realize that all of these are acquired through experience, often painful experience. As the Bible says, “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.”⁹

Pray in Jesus’ name. “I tell you the truth,” [Jesus said] “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to [God] the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son [Jesus] may bring glory to [God] the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”¹⁰

Finally, come to God on his terms. Effective prayer is also dependent on our having a right relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only one through whom we can approach God. “Nobody can come to God except through me,”¹¹ Jesus said. Because of our sin, our relationship with God has been broken. But because of Christ’s death for us on the cross, our relationship with God can be restored by our responding to Jesus’ invitation to receive him into our heart and life as personal Lord and Savior.* And then we can come to God in prayer through Jesus.

When we are living in a right relationship with God and learn to pray the right prayers, we can be certain that God will answer them. As Jesus said, “If you stay in [right relationship with] me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!”¹²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you are always available to hear and answer my prayers. Like Thomas of old, please help me in my times of unbelief to know in my heart that you always hear and answer my prayers when I pray sincerely, in harmony with your will, and come to you through Jesus Christ my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for always doing this. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

* To accept God’s Invitation to accept his full and free pardon go to: https://learning.actsweb.org/invitation.php.

6. 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV).

7. Genesis 32:26 (TLB)(NLT).

8. Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV).

9. Romans 5:3-4 (RSV)(NASB).

10. John 14:12-14 (NIV)

11. John 14:6

12. John 15:7 (TLB)(NLT)

Pray for truth. When we have a problem, a habit that has us beaten, a conflict, or even some sicknesses, we tend to focus our prayers on the symptoms rather than on the cause or causes. As counselor Dr. Cecil Osborne explains, when we unconsciously cover a deeper sin or fault, we tend to confess a lesser one all the more vigorously [or somebody else's]. This is because we don’t see or are afraid to see the often deeper cause or causes of our problems.

Whenever I have a problem, I acknowledge the problem but also ask God to show me the root cause of the problem, because often our problems are the fruit of a deeper root. In other words, we usually just see the “presenting problem,” which so often is the symptom of a deeper problem.

This is why I ask God to face me with the truth of what I am or might be contributing to my problem, to give me the courage to see it, and the help to do what I need to do to resolve it. Praying for the truth is one of the most effective ways of praying I know. Sometimes I don’t want to see the truth for fear it might be too frightening, so I tell God that I am willing to be made willing to see it—whatever it might be—and no matter how painful this might be.

Whenever I have prayed this way, I have always had my prayer answered. Sometimes the answer comes quickly, other times slowly. It usually depends on when I am ready to receive it.

Pray honestly. If I pray that God will bless my neighbor, but in my heart I hate my neighbor, which prayer will God hear? Obviously, what my heart is saying. The only way God will bless my neighbor in answer to my prayer is if I admit that I hate him and ask God to help me to love him.

Meaningless repetition doesn’t mean a thing to God.³ The prayer he hears and answers is the one that comes from the heart. As today’s Scripture says, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”¹

Pray believing. Faith, too, is essential for effective prayer. As Jesus said, “All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,”⁴ and “according to your faith will it be done to you.”⁵

To be concluded…

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me always to pray according to the principles as found in your Word, the Bible, so I can be certain you will hear and answer my prayers. Thank you, too, that when I am truthful with you, you are near to help me when I call on you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

2. Psalm 145:18 (NIV)

3. Matthew 6:7

4. Matthew 21:22 (NIV)

5. Matthew 9:29 (NIV)

An overcast sky made the country night intensely dark and a light drizzle made the highway dangerously slick. On my way home that night, as I passed a semi-trailer and pulled in front of it, my car struck a slippery patch of roadway and went slithering snake-like down the road out of control. Abruptly my car swung around and began careening down the road backwards with the semi-trailer barreling down on top of me!

In terror I prayed, “God, help!”

With only moments to spare, my car suddenly flipped sideways out of the path of the oncoming semi! But it kept skidding sideways off the highway and down an embankment. Certain my car would now overturn, in terror I prayed again. Amazingly, my car didn’t overturn. Neither did it stop. It swung around and then went forward bouncing through a field. “Oh no,” I thought, “now I’ll end up smashing into a tree.” I thought my number was up. I prayed again.

Eventually my car stopped in front of some bushes. Miraculously, I missed every post by the roadside and every tree in the field. I backed up a few feet, turned around and drove back to the freeway without a single bruise to myself or a scratch on my car.

Was my safety a coincidence or does God answer prayer and help us when we call on him?

In my experience, I have found that God answers some prayers very quickly; others quite slowly. And some don’t seem to get answered at all.

Effective prayer is not a lucky charm to gain special favors. Neither is it a pain-killer like a giant aspirin: “Take God three times a day and you won’t feel any pain!” as John Powell put it.

Prayer can be effective. The key is learning to pray the right prayer. As the Bible says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God. And when you do ask, you don’t receive because you ask wrongly, with wrong motives, for selfish reasons.¹

How, then, do we pray the right prayers?

Pray responsibly. God won’t do for us what we need to do for ourselves. Many a time, for example, when I was a student, I’d pray furiously for God’s help at examination time—especially when I wasn’t adequately prepared. I managed to pass my exams, but not because of any pray-instead-of-study prayers.

To be continued…

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you desire that I always come to you in prayer, and that you always answer my prayers—one way or the other. Help me to learn how to pray the right prayer and not expect you to do for me what I can and need to do for myself. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

1. James 4:2-3 (paraphrase).

C. S. Lewis wisely pointed out that “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without guideposts.”

The danger is that good people can be lost and on their way to Hell without knowing it. For instance, Nicodemus, the Jewish religious leader, was a good man. He asked Jesus a question about God and, ignoring his question, Jesus told him that there was only one way to see the kingdom of God, and that was, “You must be born again.” Understandably, Nicodemus was confused and asked Jesus for an explanation. Simply put, Jesus was saying that to enter earth we were born physically; similarly, to enter God’s kingdom—including Heaven—we have to be born spiritually. Jesus added that unless we are born spiritually, we wouldn’t even see the Kingdom of Heaven let alone enter it.²

And how can we be born spiritually? 1) By admitting that we have sinned and are guilty before God; 2) By believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins; and 3) By inviting Jesus Christ to come into our heart and life as personal Lord and Savior, and asking God for his forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.

For help to do this, please read “God’s Invitation to accept his full and free pardon,” on line at: www.actsweb.org/invitation.php.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for explaining to Nicodemus, a good man and a religious leader, that he, too, needed to be born again spiritually to enter your kingdom of Heaven. Please help me to know for certain that I am born again and will be with you in Heaven when my life’s work is ended. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Mathew 10: 28 (NIV).

2. See John 3:3, 5 and 7 (NKJV)

Whenever we make major changes in our life in order to make progress or grow in our personal or spiritual life, or to seek to serve God more enthusiastically, chances are we will face some opposition and flak.

On one occasion I was facing an uncomfortable amount of flak because of a major change of direction I had made in my life, which I believed was the right thing for me to do. However, the flak I received came not from “the enemy without” but from opposition within. As the saying goes, “Christians are the only army that shoots its wounded.”

When I was feeling the strain and feeling afraid, I pictured in my mind’s eye that I was a pilot flying through unfriendly territory with a lot of flak coming at me. But sitting beside me was my co-pilot, Jesus. Immediately I knew I would be safe and that he would guide me safely through the storm. And he did. And I am where I am today because of it.

It helps to remember that no matter what we are going through, if we are a true Christian and put our trust in God, his presence and Spirit are always with us. A part of the work of the Holy Spirit (God’s Spirit) is that he is not only our Comforter, but is one who is called alongside to help us in every situation in which we find ourselves. Note, too, that the Holy Spirit is called alongside to be our helper—not to do for us what we are responsible for doing ourselves.

Suggested prayer: “Dear Jesus God, when I need to make choices or changes that I believe are necessary and right, please give me the courage to make them regardless of the opposition or flak I might receive. And help me always to ‘see’ your being with me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 14:15-17 (TLB)(NLT).

A Daily Encounter subscriber enquires: “The Bible states that when Christ comes back that he will raise the dead in Christ. Does this mean Christ will raise the Christians or the non-Christians? Before my mother died she said to me, ‘Honey I will soon be happy when I am with your baby brother.’ My brother died when he was four months old and my mother lived with the guilt that she may have rolled over on him. That was years ago when sudden infant death was not known about. So is my Mom now with Christ?”

Hello Jeanie (name changed). When Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago his coming covered a period of 33 years. He has promised that he will come again and this time it will cover a period of some seven years. First it is with what the theologians call the Rapture.

This refers to all the Christians who have died (and their souls have gone on to Heaven to be with the Lord) when their bodies will be raised and the Christians who are still living will be caught up together with them in the air to go to heaven to be with Jesus. This is the beginning of the Second coming of Jesus. Back here on earth, however, will be the beginning of the seven-year great tribulation and the entrance of the Antichrist. At the end of this seven-year period we will return with Christ to the earth to rule and reign with him for the next thousand years. After this God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth and all the true followers of Jesus will be together with the Lord for all eternity.

Those who have died and are not Christians; that is, those who have never received Jesus as their Savior will be raised at the end of the thousand years and then, before the Great White Judgment Throne of God, will be judged for their sins and will have to pay the just penalty themselves because they refused or failed to ask for and receive God’s forgiveness. They will then be cast into Hell (whatever and wherever that may happen to be) and be there forever without any hope.²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for your promise that if I am a true follower of Jesus, you will take me to be with you in Heaven when I die, and that when you come again, my body will be raised and so shall I ever be with the Lord. And thank you for dying in my place to pay the penalty for all my sins, and forgiving me, so that I know I will never be sent to Hell—the place that is prepared for the Devil and his demons. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: To be absolutely sure that you have received God’s forgiveness for all your sins and God’s gift of eternal life, and know that you will go to Heaven when you die, be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/christian.

1. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV).

2. See Revelation 20:12-14 (King James Version)

Imagine, if you can, living in a world without trees. How desolate such a place would be. But trees are not just a thing of beauty. They have a very strategic role to play in our world. They convert light into energy and “breathe” the carbon dioxide exhaled by man and animals. They use this gas to help manufacture food and in its place give off oxygen, which man again breathes. They help clean the air of dust particles, stop erosion and restore deserts. They provide fodder, timber, and innumerable other products. Just how they lift enormous amounts of water to their highest branches and manufacture food is still a mystery.

As the poet, Joyce Kilmer, so eloquently put it:

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for all the beauty and creativity you have given to us in nature. May it ever remind me of your majesty, your awesome power, and your everlasting care and love. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Psalm 96:11-13 (NIV).

2. Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918.

Some televangelists claim that if you give generously (to their ministry of course), God will greatly bless you with wealth. But is this true? According to today’s Scripture if we tithe and give generously and cheerfully to God, this is something that God loves, but the blessing God promises is that our needs will be met—not that we will become wealthy—and as such we will abound in good works; that is, we will become rich in good works.

It is true that God has greatly blessed many capable and generous business people with financial success who have, in turn, given greatly to God’s work. The important lesson we all need to learn, however, is that we need to give to God’s work in thanksgiving to God and to Jesus for giving his life to die on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins—not for what we can get—but rather to become rich and abound in good works—good works that will glorify God.

To put it bluntly: in life there are givers and takers. Givers give cheerfully of whatever they have—even if it is only friendship, encouragement, and service—and always reap a reward and become richer as persons. Takers, who are always on the take to see what they can get for themselves, will always be paupers as persons, no matter how wealthy financially or otherwise they may or may not become.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a giver in every area of life, including of what finances I have, and so become rich and abound in good works. May I always give cheerfully as unto you in thanksgiving for all you have done for me. Furthermore, help me to be wise in all that I give and be certain that I am serving you and giving to your work on earth. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NIV).

Pastor Tod Bolsinger shares the following story about two members in the San Clemente Presbyterian church: “Gus and Hal are widowers at my church. Octogenarians both, they have become friends since their wives passed. It’s getting harder for both of them to come to church on Sundays, but to be sure when they are there, they are there together.

“Hal is blind. Gus is an amputee confined to a wheel chair. When they come to church, Hal pushes Gus and Gus directs Hal. They make their way through the parking lot and the patio to their place together in the pew. And together, and only together, they come to church. A blind man who can’t see giving energy to a man who can’t walk. A lame man who can’t move giving direction to a man who lacks vision. But together, they worship, take part in community and offer their gifts, and, well, inspire a whole lot of us.”²

Isn’t this what Christianity is all about—supporting one another, caring for one another, and working together with one another—for the cause of Christ. In Christ’s ministry on earth it was almost always in conjunction with one or more of his disciples. He sent out the 70 messengers two by two. Peter, James and John ministered together, as did Paul and Barnabas; Paul and Silas; Paul, Silas and Timothy; Barnabas and John Mark; and Priscilla and Aquila. We, too, need to care for each other, support each other, and work together for the cause of Jesus Christ and the spreading of the gospel.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for the example set for us by Jesus Christ, the early disciples and the first Christians. Please help me to be a partner in caring for, supporting, and working together with fellow Christians to be a part of the work that you are doing in the world today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 6:2 (NKJV).

2. From Tod Bolsinger’s blog, “It Takes a Church.”