The Prayer That God Answers Experience the Power and Fullness of the Lord's Prayer by Michael Youssef, Ph.D. Copyright © 2000 by Michael Youssef All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Scripture quotations noted NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®. © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission. Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Youssef, Michael. The prayer that God answers : experience the power and fullness of the Lord's prayer / Michael Youssef. p. cm. ISBN 0-7852-7105-8 (pbk.) 1. Prayer—Christianity. 2. Lord's prayer—Devotional literature. I. Title. BV210.2.Y69 2000 248.3'2—dc21 99-059066 CIP Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 HART 05 04 03 02 01 00 Dedication To Sarah Elizabeth, Natasha Anne, Joshua David, and Jonathan Michael, Who have been my prayer laboratory for the past quarter of a century Table of Contents 1. Why Prayer Is Easy 2. Our Father: Start Where You Should 3. In Heaven: Know Where You're Going 4. Hallowed Be Your Name: Exalting God's Name 5. Your Kingdom Come: Thrown into Battle 6. Your Will Be Done: Discerning God's Will 7. Our Daily Bread: God Looks After His Own 8. Forgive Us . As We Also Have Forgiven: Forgive and Be Forgiven 9. Lead Us Not into Temptation: Put Yourself Beyond Satan's Reach 10. Deliver Us from the Evil One: Avoid Sins of the Human Spirit 11. The Kingdom and the Power: Power to the People 12. Praying the Prayer That God Answers: Your Daily Guide Notes About the Author Chapter 1. Why Prayer Is Easy In May 1990 my wife lay in the recovery room as we waited for the doctor's report. Elizabeth had undergone a range of tests from our regular doctor, who had referred us to one of America's leading surgical consultants. Now, following the removal of a small lump, we were about to hear the results of the biopsy. The specialist did not soften the blow. "It's cancer," he told us. The next two weeks taught me more about prayer than I had ever known, and the first thing I learned was this: prayer is easy. Do you sometimes think praying is an onerous burden? I assure you, it's not. When cancer invades your life, you discover just how simple prayer is. No longer do you drag yourself to your morning devotions. No longer do you secretly crave the distraction of a phone call. No longer do you fall asleep halfway through your prayer time. Suddenly you want to pray. You want to pray so badly you can't stop yourself from praying. And you want God to answer. Being a pastor gave me no advantage in getting my prayers answered. In fact, it added a second layer of difficulty, because I knew I was in the spotlight. Others look to me as an example. If the pastor cannot pray effectively, what hope is there for everyone else? Very quickly, then, I got down to the task of "spiritual lobbying." I knew God was in charge. I knew He had the power to deliver instantaneous healing. My job was to persuade Him to use it, or so I thought. I employed the usual methods. I made sure I spent lots of time on my knees, taking every opportunity to remind God of my situation. I got others to pray, on the principle that the louder the clamor we made, the sooner God would hear us. My case felt pretty watertight. After all, God could not ignore this satanic attack on my wife. Surely He could not stand by while my innocent children suffered. And wouldn't a healing be a tremendous testimony? "If the cancer has disappeared when we go back to the doctor," I assured the Lord, "You will get all the glory and Your name will be uplifted." It seemed inconceivable to me that God should turn down an offer like that. Within a few days, I was already working out how I would break the stupendous news to the congregation. I was ready for a miracle. But things turned out very differently. Deliverance in the Lions' Den Our follow-up visit to the hospital brought bad tidings. We watched the surgeon slide the X-ray films out of their covers. For a moment I still expected to see his jaw drop in disbelief, expected to hear him say the cancer was gone. But it didn't happen. Instead he frowned and said, "I'm afraid we need to operate as soon as possible." Far from being able to thank God for a miraculous healing, Elizabeth now had to reconcile herself to the prospect of major surgery and a draining course of chemotherapy. This was not the outcome I had prayed for. And worse was to come. One week before Elizabeth was admitted for surgery, our eldest daughter fell seriously ill. Within twenty-four hours her body swelled up so much that we could barely see her eyes. We called in a pediatrician, who diagnosed an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs and decided to check her into the hospital for observation. Elizabeth went to be with her the first night. I stayed home with our other three children and called some friends in the congregation. Within hours the whole church had begun to cry to God on our behalf. At four the next morning the phone startled me awake. It was Elizabeth. "You've got to come right away," she said. "Her blood pressure has dropped so low that she's gone into shock. She's losing consciousness." As I put the phone down, I realized three children were asleep upstairs. I was the only adult in the house. I couldn't just run out. After wasting a couple of minutes desperately trying to think who I could disturb in the middle of the night, I picked up the phone again and rang our dear family friend Polly Peacock. She was over in minutes. The drive to the hospital that night is etched permanently in my memory. I prayed the kind of prayer you can only pray in the shadow of disaster—a prayer in which you forget all the normal courtesies and hammer on the doors of heaven as loudly as you can. I'm not proud of the way I addressed my heavenly Father on that occasion. I wrestled with Him as Jacob wrestled with the angel at the brook of Kidron. And yet I know that God understood the depths of despair from which that prayer came, for He understands me better than I understand myself. I think it was during that short journey to the hospital that the prophet Daniel's experience crystallized in my mind: Daniel was not saved from the den of lions; he was saved in the den of lions. For every moment of that long, dark night, Daniel had to trust that God would keep those lions' mouths closed. Until dawn came and Nebuchadnezzar's guards pulled Daniel out, he remained in imminent danger. He had no way of knowing the lions wouldn't suddenly get hungry and eat him alive. And so it was for us. By the time I arrived, the hospital staff had pushed the emergency button, and my daughter had been wheeled into the intensive care unit. We waited five or six hours (it felt like years) for a team of experts to assemble and diagnose our daughter's condition—not as an allergic reaction but as toxic shock syndrome. To our relief, she gradually pulled back from the brink of death. Yet no sooner had I checked my daughter out of one hospital than I was checking my wife into another. The operation to remove Elizabeth's cancer gave way to six months of chemotherapy, with all its painful side effects. Despite my early optimistic prayer, God did not deliver us from the lions' den. Like Daniel, we had to endure our night of darkness and danger. Praying Is the Most Important Thing You'll Ever Do What did this experience teach me about prayer? You might say, of course, that I got what I wanted—in the end. The danger is now past; two people I dearly love are still alive and well; and consequently I can quit lobbying God and go back to what I was doing before. But this is exactly the wrong conclusion. It's true that I'm thankful to God for healing my wife and daughter. In that sense I did get what I wanted, and my prayers were answered. But that is only part of the outcome. What I learned was the vast difference between my agenda and God's. At the beginning all I wanted was for God to help me attain my own goal. By the end I had realized what a wealth of far greater goals is attainable if only I will take time to be alone with Him. You see, prayer is not meant to be a means of getting what we want.