Text: Matthew 6:6, Ephesians 6:18

Topic: What makes for successful prayer

• Our relationship with God is as good as our communication with him.

I believe that God hears us and responds to us.

• At the beginning of each prayer, ask God, "Give me the grace to pray well."

At the bottom of every religious experience is surrender to God.

• Illustration: Powell tells the story of two alcoholics: one, a patient of Carl Jung and the other, Alcoholics Anonymous Bill Wilson, both of whom turned their lives over to God, and were healed.
• Illustration: Powell describes a bitter, dying woman who senses God saying to her that he is the only one who can cure her, and upon surrendering to him, her liver begins to function again.

Someone wrote, "God lets you love the question until you can live the answer."

We have to seek God's plans rather than our own.

• God has already decided to enter our lives—on the condition that we pray and are ready to receive his graces.

I have to tell God who I really am.

• When we put masks on when we're in prayer, God can't relate to us.

• When we love, God acts.