The Prayer God Answers by Eberhard Arnold


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Contents

Why Pray?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 1
The Nature of True Prayer. . . . . 5
Does God Hear Us? . . . . . 10
Obstacles to Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Praying for the Kingdom. . . . . 20

Why Pray?

God is life, rich and overflowing life. He is love, and he wants to draw
all of us into his life and into his love. Time and again he seeks to lift us
into the realm where his life rules.
This is why God stepped out of himself to come to us in his Son. In Jesus,
God has opened his heart to us. He has turned his face to us. He comes to us,
reveals his thoughts and shows us who he is and what he wills. He gives us
everything we need and wants to perfect the work he has begun. Amazingly,
we feeble and insignificant creatures are the object of his concern. Out of the
incomprehensible love of his heart, God loves each of us quite personally. In
his concern for us, God seeks out all people and invites them to take part in
his new creation.

God wants each of us to respond to him personally and practically. This is
why we pray. He wants us to know his heart, accept his work, affirm his will,
and carry it out. But most of all, God wants to give himself to us. He gives us
his spirit so that we might live, act, and work just as his Word did, when it
became flesh.

God wants us to come to him in the spirit of devotion that grasps the essential
and puts it into practice (Matt. 4:10). Since Jesus came to us, we can
come to the Father in spirit and in truth ( John 4:23-24). The spirit of truth
frees us from religious superficiality, idolatry, and impure motives, and brings
us under God's rulership. This truth is the clear, authentic Word of God,
which has come from God since the beginning of time.

We cannot come to the Father in spirit or in truth if we expend all our
strength trying to secure our own salvation, or just keeping our spiritual life
above water. People who are so preoccupied with themselves have no strength
left to love. But once they are saved from the living death of a separate and
selfish life, they will share in the rejuvenating unity and freedom that God
The Prayer God Answer promises everyone who is ready to receive Jesus ( John 5:24).

When they find this freedom they will devote all they are and have to the One who freed them,
giving themselves in love to all people (1 John 3:14). This all-embracing love for
others is the mark of those who have an ardent, personal love for Jesus.
This personal love for Jesus finds natural expression in heartfelt prayer.
Of course, it is really God whom we love in Christ. If we believe in God as he
is, as he lives and works, we shall feel compelled again and again to communicate
with him. Those who have faith are filled with unending joy that God
can be found now, today.

Through the life, ministry, and death of Jesus, we experience how great
and holy God's love is. Because of this we are always conscious of what separates
us and cuts us off from the unity which alone can sustain life. We come
before God in prayer again and again to confess the separating sin of our own
nature, and to thank God for forgiving our sin (Ps.32:3-6). Christ's victory
over sin, evil, and the demonic powers of self unites us with God and with
his church.

When we experience the death of Christ, our hearts are made pure. Through
community in the church, we are released from the guilt of our egoistic lives.
Now we can approach God in complete confidence, our hearts intent on him
and his kingdom. We know that the baptism of faith has cleansed us of deadly
lust. Bound with others, we live in the certainty of eternal life; we know we can