I’ve heard marvelous stories of people who’ve prayed and found their prayers answered. I’ve heard testimonies like that from some of you. I’ve heard reports from hospital chaplains. One that sticks in my mind is of a young man hopelessly sick. The physicians didn’t think surgery would help but they didn’t know what else to do. So they tried it. The young man was up and around and out of the hospital in a week. The surgeon had seen this happen before and so he asked, "Did he belong to a group and did this group pray for him?" They checked it out and learned that was exactly the case.

When I hear of experiences like that, I sometimes wonder, "Why don’t my prayers get answered?" The doubts increase when I hear Jesus making a wide-sweeping promise such as he did in the Upper Room as recorded …