Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 238.  Thu  1-30-92 22:09  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Hanna
 Subject: Prayer

+-
|  
| I hope you don't mind the simple question -- How do YOU know that prayer
| works?
|  
| Hanna
+-[H=>F]
 
Dear Hanna,
 
Christian prayer requires Christian faith --- even to fail.  If prayer
is to succeed, it needs even more faith.
 
I accept the love of my Lord Jesus Christ and of His Father.  I believe
God could have left me uncreated, zilch, nada.  He could have created
somebody else instead.  But He deliberately chose to create me.  So I am
the object, the result of His deliberate choice.  That means preference,
and preference is the basic ingredient of love.  He loves me.
 
He cares what I do.  He has given strict instructions about how I am to
live.  That shows His love, too.
 
He has commanded me to pray.  Now He is intelligent and good, so He
doesn't command prayer if He has no intention of answering it.
 
So sometimes He does answer prayer with a "yes".  He always answers it
with a listen.  If I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, in close union
and love with Him He has firmly promised to give what I ask---especially
if I BELIEVE that I ALREADY AM RECEIVING what I ask (Mark 9:23,II: 23-24).
 
Practically, I OFTEN ask for things I want and need, and they happen to
me.  Could this be just coincidence?  Well, such coincidences seldom or
never happen to people who don't pray.  They are frequent experiences
of those who do.
 
I hope this helps.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo