Frank Santora

There is something deep inside us that knows this simple truth: prayer should be easy, and talking to our Heavenly Father should be as natural as breathing. If it’s true that “we have not, because we ask not” (James 4:2), then I believe that asking for and receiving our needs in life should generally be as certain, predictable, and routine as picking up the phone and ordering pizza on a Friday night!

However, many times people want and need to pray but don’t, simply because they don’t know how to pray effectively. Even the disciples, who ministered with Jesus daily for more than three years, said "Lord, teach us to pray!" They watched Him work miracles and heard His wisdom. They were not simply asking Jesus to teach them the mechanics of prayer; they were asking for something much deeper.

Surely these men had prayed in the Temple as children, and even as adults. They could rattle off memorized prayers learned in Hebrew school, for holidays and special offerings, praying as fast as they could to fulfill religious duties. No, what the disciples desired to learn from Jesus was much more than how to look more religious. I believe they were really saying  Jesus, teach us to pray like You pray! Because every time You pray, your prayers get results, and we want results like that too! We want to know why You get results in prayer and we don’t!

This same basic need exists in the Church today: we want, we NEED to know how to pray effectively in our personal lives, for our Church and for our nation. Thankfully, we have been given specific instructions in the Word of God on how to pray like Jesus and see powerful results. These include praying based on God’s promises, praying with persistence, and yes, praying like you’re waiting for pizza!

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Carol Yepes

My grandfather was a real “man’s man.” I remember him as being big and strong, even with the prosthetic leg he had from the knee down. When he would put it on, he would say, “It’s time for me to become The Bionic Man,” and back then, I believed he really did have a super robot leg like Steve Majors on the TV show.

At times, he’d bring home a huge hero sandwich from a deli – the largest sandwich you ever saw – and he’d hold it up in front of the two of us. Then he’d start eating from one end and I’d start eating from the other, and we’d have a race to the middle of that hero sandwich! As you can imagine, he was my hero. He was Grandpa, and there was nobody more alive than him.

But one morning, my parents came into my room and woke me up. They sat down on my bed and told me something that I could not believe. 

Grandpa had died.

Grandpa? Big, strong, happy Grandpa? He was gone? It didn’t happen – it couldn’t happen, not to Grandpa! But it did.

Death is an inevitable part of life.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Dragana991

Past pain must be dealt with properly, using the mighty spiritual weapons that destroy strongholds in our lives. If not, past pain can be triggered unexpectedly in our lives, cause damage, and severely hinder us from following the plan and the destiny that God has for each of us.

You get your edge back when you determine to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, when God becomes your passion, rather than your past-time and when you determine to make Him the one you turn to first. You can't fix you – but God can!

When it comes to "goodness," God is uniquely good.  God does good and gets nothing in return. He simply is good; He loves us and enjoys being good. His goodness is unmatched, unparalleled, unprecedented and unequalled! When it comes to goodness, God is in a class all by Himself.

Our antidote to the toxic effects of worry is the finding the peace of God. This peace is supernatural, and protects us when the enemy attacks. It is far superior to any peace the world can offer, and is only found when we let go and let Him lead us in every area of our lives.

“Justifiable hate” is not a new social construct of modern life; it has been around since Cain and Able, and was precisely what Jesus addressed with the parable of the Good Samaritan. During this time when Satan is busy pushing our “justifiable hate” buttons, we can keep ourselves grounded and following Christ by emulating the behavior of the Good Samaritan.

Who hasn’t gone through a “life storm” that filled you with such fear and anxiety, you wondered if God actually cared? It’s likely we all have thought at some time, God, don’t you care about what I’m going through, what the enemy is doing in my life? Don’t you see my need? But the account in Mark 4-5 assures us that if we endure during such a trial, God’s got something amazing for us on the other side. 

In Scripture, rain is often used to represent the breakthrough of God’s blessing of living water into our lives, in such a profound and substantial way, that it is like a heavy downpour.

If we find ourselves in a dark and lonely place, we can restore hope and look for direction from God’s plan to refresh Gideon, when He gave him the path to victory.

God experiences are the best, because one authentic encounter with the living God can change your entire life. It can take life’s bad experiences and turn them entirely around for your good; and it can take the good experiences and transform them into defining moments of life.

“Sharks” lurk all around us, and this is especially true of serious followers of Christ. We go along, fishing for the souls of men with the blood of Jesus, attracting enemy sharks which want to prevent us from catching the fish that we are after. To make it safely out of deep water, we need to know the kinds of sharks that are out there and how to appropriately deal with them.

It’s not always easy to walk away from destructive relationships, but let me assure you, the short-term pain is worth the long-term gain. In the same measure, right relationships may suffer from serious damage and require a tremendous amount of work, but they are worth saving.

Attitude is not everything, but it is a little thing that makes a big difference! If we want to change our life performance, we must change our attitudes to line up with what God says they should be.