Leveraging Prayer

This is the matrix that I used in church today.  The following are some of the scriptures you may also want to look that I also used:

John 15:1-17 is the text I used as the foundation for the matrix.

I also referenced:

Awareness:

Psalm 5:1-3

Philip. 4:13

Luke 1:37

James 4:2

Matthew 7:7-8

Trust:

Matthew 7:9-11

Finally, during the second service I made a statement that was incorrect.  I said something to the effect of, "when your heart is aligned with God's heart, you will want the same things God wants, so you will start getting what you want because you will want what God wants."  This implies that God always get what He wants.  I do not believe this.  Since I've discussed my theological stance on this in other writings, I won't expand on it here, but I retract the statement and regret saying it.  God will not remove people's ability to choose, so when we pray for our friend to choose to follow Christ and turn away from their poor, destructive way of living, that is also what God wants (i.e., we have heart alignment with God), but it doesn't mean it will happen.  They have to choose to follow God.

Hope this helps.