Back in Eden, the first pair had the privilege of meeting daily with the heavenly Father. They were talking to Him as we do to a friend today. By transgression, this privilege was restricted a bit. If before they were able to share with Him about everything they would do, everything they would need, face-to-face—now they were able to talk to Him only by voice without seeing Him anymore. Since that time sin continues to separate us from God more and more, and to the same degree that sin corrupts and taints humanity—that sin unfits us to be able to come into the presence of God. Day by day humanity plunges more deeply into evil and would have remained so forever had not God especially interposed. We are full of sin, but we are able to come to God and ask for mercy and forgiveness with holy boldness—overcoming the fear of being guilty, because we have Christ as our mediator. Through His own merits, Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, so that the ministering angels can hold communion with humanity. Christ connects us—in our weakness and helplessness—with the Source of infinite power. If our petition comes from a very sincere heart and we pray in His name, even when we don’t know what words to use in prayer, Jesus will arrange that petition in a very pleasing way that is fragrant with His incense—so that our prayer is acceptable to our Father.

“Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. . . .

In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.”4 

“When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.

“Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. . . . And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.”5

“Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.

“There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are. We should have the door of the heart open continually and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in the soul.”6 

To say “I’m sorry” is the most difficult sentence in the world. It seems easy, but the gravity of the guilt we feel impedes us from coming to God. Talking to a friend is not hard, but when we know we have disappointed that friend, then it gets harder to talk with him or her. Whenever we see that person, we tend to try to turn away just to avoid meeting face-to-face. So with Jesus, it sometimes seems easier to avoid Him than admit we have disappointed Him.

Here Satan acts his role as well. The devil comes to discourage us just as he did in heaven with the angels. He flaunts in our face the gravity of the sin we did and tells us that we went too far to be able to be forgiven anymore. But the Word of God teaches us that when we feel so weak—as we are with no mediator—then that is the exact moment to kneel down. At that moment we should begin to pray and ask God to save us. We must look to Christ, our only hope. At those moments He is so much closer to us than other times! And if necessary, He is ready to send all the angels needed to aid us if we are pleading for His sustaining grace.

To negotiate with the evil one and think somehow you’ll be the winner is to deceive yourself. Satan always will be the winner if you trust in your own strength. A teacher from our missionary school used to say, “I trust you, but I don’t trust the devil.” The archenemy knows us better than we do, and when we think we have finally won the victory, he comes to us with the temptation that he knows we like—and designs it in a perfect way so that we can’t say no to it. It may be music, cars, fashion, video games, or any temptation—any other thing that we like and we focus on it more than we do on God. He’s got enough experience to tempt us at that moment and he knows how to deal with people of all ages, young and old. First, it may seem like a new experience to us, but after we repeat it for some time we become addicted to it and we cannot seem to imagine life without it. And getting used to it, you’ll soon feel like there is nothing wrong in doing so anymore. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and if it is possible, he will deceive the very elect.

If you’re dealing with this and feel devoid of strength—and you begin to think there is no way for you to come out of this situation, remember that Jesus invites us to come unto Him and receive rest for our souls. The Bible teaches us that certain types of evil “can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). Try to choose one day per week for a specific time and set it aside for prayer and fasting. It is our privilege to come to God with holy boldness. At first this will be hard. Satan will come to tempt us as he did with Jesus in the wilderness. He knew that Jesus had been fasting and praying for a long time—so he knew that Christ was probably very hungry. At that moment he came to share with Him some ideas about where and how He could get some food.

I remember when I first tried to fast. . . . I am not used to eating on the Sabbath mornings, but on that very Sabbath when I had told myself I would fast, suddenly I felt hungrier than usual and I couldn’t resist the temptation! But by praying more, I obtained more strength from above and—by fasting I received power to control my whole body with my brain. The brain is the only place where Satan has no access—and then he tries to control us through other parts of the body.

Another way to overcome the idols in our heart is through the power of group prayer. I remember a few years ago, a neighbor stopped by our church on a Sabbath morning during our divine service. He waited till we finished the worship and then he asked us to pray for him. He told us that he had been trying for a long time to quit smoking. All the various ways he had tried to quit had achieved no results. And he really believed that if we would pray for him specifically according to his temptation he would gain enough strength to quit. He never returned to church after that (at least not yet), but he recently told my grandmother that ever since we prayed for him that day, he has never smoked again and he wanted to thank everyone in the church for praying for him.

“Satan knows better than God’s people the power that they can have over him, when their strength is in Christ. When they humbly entreat the mighty Conqueror for help, the weakest believer in the truth, relying firmly upon Christ, can successfully repulse Satan and all his host.”7

As we sincerely ask God to help us to loose the bands of evil, He will hear and answer us. But we must live in harmony with our prayers. They are of no avail if we walk contrary to them. We will not be able to resist temptations by fasting and praying if at the same time we continue to abide in the midst of them. Loose the bands of evil and “resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:9).

Answered prayers are cause for praise and thanksgiving. We often think that to pray means to ask—to beg—God about everything we need. Many times we seek the Lord when we are in trouble or when we are sick. We go to pray to Him more than Daniel used to pray, we become the most sincere Christians in the world. But when everything goes all right with us, we forget about God, about everything. There are many reasons to give thanks and praise God if we look around us to the things that the Lord is supplying to us each and every day. Don’t forget to thank God for the answered prayers and continue your relationship with Him even if you think “now I am healthy again and I don’t need God anymore.” Praise God for the sun that every day provides us enough light and heat; praise Him for the fresh air you are breathing; and praise Him for the beautiful sound of the birds that come to your window and sing for free. All of these seem to be insignificant things—but did you ever think of how kind and generous God is to do things like this for us day by day?

“The change we need is a change of heart, and can only be obtained by seeking God individually for His blessing, by pleading with Him for His power, by fervently praying that His grace may come upon us, and that our characters may be transformed.”8

“Every day you should learn something new from the Scriptures. Search them as for hid treasures, for they contain the words of eternal life. Pray for wisdom and understanding to comprehend these holy writings. If you would do this you would find new glories in the word of God; you would feel that you had received new and precious light on subjects connected with the truth, and the Scriptures would be constantly receiving a new value in your estimation.”9

Pray as you study, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18)!

“Strive earnestly for unity. Pray for it, work for it. It will bring spiritual health, elevation of thought, nobility of character, heavenly-mindedness, enabling you to overcome selfishness and evil surmisings, and to be more than conquerors through Him that loved you and gave Himself for you. Crucify self; esteem others better than yourselves. Thus you will be brought into oneness with Christ. Before the heavenly universe, and before the church and the world, you will bear unmistakable evidence that you are God’s sons and daughters. God will be glorified in the example that you set.”10

“Do you pray for the advancement of the truth? Then work for it, and show that your prayers rise from sincere and earnest hearts. God does not work miracles where He has provided means by which the work may be accomplished. Use your time and talents in His service, and He will not fail to work with your efforts.”11

“We are so erring and short-sighted that we sometimes ask for things that would not be a blessing to us, and our heavenly Father in love answers our prayers by giving us that which will be for our highest good—that which we ourselves would desire if with vision divinely enlightened we could see all things as they really are. When our prayers seem not to be answered, we are to cling to the promise; for the time of answering will surely come, and we shall receive the blessing we need most. But to claim that prayer will always be answered in the very way and for the particular thing that we desire, is presumption. God is too wise to err, and too good to withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly. Then do not fear to trust Him, even though you do not see the immediate answer to your prayers. Rely upon His sure promise, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you.’ ”12

God, as any earthly father does, has the right to analyze our requests. If a father thinks that what his son has asked him is not a wise request, or if he sees his son not behaving the way he is being told, the request may be denied. The heavenly Father has the same right to analyze our requests. His answer may be,” “Not yet,” “Not the way you want,” “a little bit different,” or His answer may be “Yes.” But am I ready to accept a negative answer as well? There is a dual condition in fulfilling the promise that all we ask in Christ’s name shall be given to us: Jesus says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

“If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we cling to any known sin, the Lord will not hear us; but the prayer of the penitent, contrite soul is always accepted. When all known wrongs are righted, we may believe that God will answer our petitions.”13

Prayer is a powerful weapon in the Christian’s hand. It is the key that opens the heavenly treasures for us and is a faster means of communication than even the most sophisticated state-of-the-art technology of today would ever be able to perform. I’ve experienced being alone on a new continent, far away from family and friends, and finding myself with no support. Then, in less than a second, I’ve made a “call” to God to ask for His guidance and protection. From that instant, I start feeling as if I’ve lived there forever. We still don’t understand what prayer means; we even don’t take advantage of this privilege as much as we could. Usually we only think about it when we are in trouble. But imagine how powerful we’ll be if we pray without ceasing as Jesus has told us!

“Those who will put on the whole armor of God and devote some time every day to meditation and prayer and to the study of the Scriptures will be connected with heaven and will have a saving, transforming influence upon those around them. . . . Their earnest prayers will enter into that within the veil. This class will have a sanctified boldness to come into the presence of the Infinite One. They will feel that heaven’s light and glories are for them, and they will become refined, elevated, ennobled by this intimate acquaintance with God. Such is the privilege of true Christians.”14