- Welcome to CBN's Week of Prayer.

This is the time that weset aside to pray for you

and ask you to tell us whatyou want us to pray for,

and be specific with your prayer requests.

If you wanted to be a part of this

and have your prayer requests prayed over

by the staff of CBN every day this week,

it's our honor, ourprivilege to pray with you.

So, if you wanna be a part of it

all you have to do, it's real simple,

you can go to cbn.com.

There's a place on the website

where you can submit your prayer request.

There's also a way whereyou can just call us.

1-800-700-7000.

Or you can write to us.

CBN Center.

Virginia Beach, Virginia.

23463.

If you need prayer inthese uncertain times,

by all means, let's go to Godalmighty with our request.

We can go boldly to his throne of grace.

We know when we pray inaccordance with his will

he will hear us and he will answer.

Now, in these turbulent times

it's always good to, beforeyou pray, to turn to Scripture.

And this morning I was in Isaiah.

It's the ninth chapter,verses six to seven.

This is for all of uswho question government

and question what's our mayor doing,

what's our governor doing,

what's our administration doing,what's the president doing,

what the Senate and Congress are doing.

These questions are coming.

What's the government doing?

And it's always goodto go back to Scripture

and get reassurance.

Here it is from Isaiah chapternine, verses six and seven.

"For unto us, a child is born.

"Unto us, a son is given.

"And the government willbe upon his shoulder.

"And his name will be called wonderful,

"counselor, mighty God,everlasting father,

"prince of peace.

"Of the increase of hisgovernment and peace

"there will be no end."

And then it adds, "Thezeal of the Lord of hosts

"will perform this."

Which is wonderful.

It means it's not up to you and me.

We are not in charge of this.

The government is on his shoulders.

The increase of his government.

The increase of his peace has no end.

And we don't have to do a thing.

The zeal of the Lord ofhosts will perform this.

Realize that because of hisoverwhelming love for you,

he went to the cross.

He died, he rose again.

Right now he is at theright hand of the Father

and what is he doing?

He is interceding for you and me.

His government, the governmentis on his shoulders.

His government has aneverlasting increase.

His government has peace.

So, let's enter into that.

It's not something we have to do.

It's something he has already done.

And when we have that attitude,we're in that position,

well then we have plentyof freedom to pray,

and pray without anxiety,

but pray in confidence,knowing we are praying

in accordance with his will, his word,

his government, his peace.

We know when we ask, we will be answered.

Now, we've gotten prayer requests.

I just wanna read a few of them

that have come in just yesterday.

Here's one.

Healing for my son-in-law after a stroke.

He has some brain damage.

He's quite childlike now

and needs to learn tospeak and is confused.

Healing for my husbandafter open-heart surgery.

Four bypasses were done.

His blood pressure is not under control.

He's got shortness of breath.

He also has diabetes and kidney disease.

And another one for kidney disease.

Pray my kidney would bea match for my son-in-law

who needs a transplant.

Then for family requests,

prayer for protectionand peace for children

who are home-bound and livingin an abusive environment.

School may have beentheir only safe place.

And then another one,please pray for my son

who is deeply depressed becauseof his failing business.

Let's pray for these specifically.

I'll pray for these.

We have our CBN staff, theyhave the other requests.

They'll be praying for them.

And you join with us.

Let's create a great circle of prayer

knowing that the governmentis on his shoulders.

He is responsible.

He's watching.

He's not sleeping.

He's not slumbering.

He's watching over, and theincrease of his government

has no end, and the increaseof his peace has no end.

Let's enter into that.

Let's pray.

Let's believe.

Lord God almighty, we come to you

and we just declare, thereis no end to your government.

There is no end to your peace.

So Lord, let your kingdom come.

Let your will be done in our hearts.

That our hearts would be settled.

That you have our future.

That you are working allthings together for our good.

That you have been working allthings together for our good,

and tomorrow you will be working

all things together for our good.

You love to do this.

You love to watch over us.

It is your zeal, your everlasting zeal

that accomplishes this.

So Lord, give us eyes to see that.

Give us ears to hear that.

Give us a heart to understand that,

that we may enter into your rest

and into your peace.

That we would see your glory

and how you are accomplishingyour purpose on earth today.

Give us this revelation, Lord God,

and remove from us all fear, all anxiety.

But let us have your perfectlove and your perfect peace.

And now, for those whohave medical problems,

for the one who has hadheart bypass surgery,

for the one with kidney problems,

for the one wonderingabout kidney transplant,

Lord, stretch forth your hand to heal.

For all those in theaudience that need healing,

whether it's from COVIV-19,

whether it's from other diseases,

whether they're worriedabout lack of care,

whether they're worriedthat if they go to a doctor

or to a hospital they'll be infected.

Lord, provide their needand heal their bodies now.

For all those who are struggling at home

and struggling inenvironments that are hostile,

Lord let peace be upon them.

Let your peace come to that home.

Let all anger and all strife

and all bitterness and all resentment

and all abuse be gone now in Jesus' name.

Let the hearts of the fathersturn to their children.

Let there be compassion, generosity,

forgiveness, and safety,Lord God, in the home.

Let homes be safe places, notplaces of strife and violence.

Safety, Lord.

Be a prince of peace for them

and let the government of your peace

have no end in their houses.

Let it not be a momentary truce,

but a peace that endures.

Now Lord, for anyone who's having

emotional problems right now,

for anyone who is anxious, come to them.

Let your peace guardtheir hearts and minds.

And we ask it all inJesus' name, amen and amen.

If you'd like us to pray for you,

again, all you have to do is call us.

1-800-700-7000.

You can also write to us at CBN Center.

Virginia Beach, Virginia.

23463.

Or you can go to our website, cbn.com.

There's a place on the website

where you can write inyour prayer request.

Either way, do it now.

We're in our week of prayerand we want to pray for you.

Well, we're joined nowby a dear friend of CBN.

Sheila Walsh inspired viewersof the 700 Club for years,

and her sense of humor

combined with a contagious love for Christ

has made her a popular authorand sought-after speaker.

She's currently a co-host of Life Today

we James and Betty Robison,

and today Sheila joins us toshare her personal journey

of discovering a powerful prayer life.

(uplifting music)- Hi, and welcome

to my living room.

Really grateful for theopportunity to just share

a few words with you in this special week

on the power of prayer.

About three years ago Idecided to start researching

everything that God's wordhad to say about prayer.

And not only that, but to go way, way back

and look at from the early church on,

what do some of the early church fathers

have to say about prayer?

And the reason is this.

I knew that it was the onearea in my spiritual life

that I felt the weakest in.

I love to study the word of God.

I love to dig deep and find jewels,

when you look at the original language,

the Hebrew or the Greek.

And I love, what an honorit is to stand on a platform

and share about the love of God

and teach from the word of God.

And I love to do that on television, too.

But I felt that the one areathat I really struggled with

was the area of prayer.

I never intended to write a book on it.

It was simply somethingthat I wanted to do

for my own spiritual life.

But one night I decidedjust to kind of see

how my community offriends and social media,

how they viewed prayer

and what they might struggle with,

so I just threw out a simple,

if I say to you, tell meyour thoughts on prayer,

what would those be?

And then I said, and please don't feel

as if you have to say the right thing.

Just say what you really,really feel or what you think.

And some of the answers I identified with.

Things like, I get distracted.

I'm halfway through prayingand I suddenly think,

did I defrost the chicken?

Or, I feel like I just repeat myself

over and over and over again.

But some of the responseshad much more weight to them.

Things like, I prayed thatGod would spare my marriage.

I prayed with tears pouring down my face,

God please, heal my marriage,

and my husband left my anyway.

So why bother praying?

And others said things like,

if God already knowswhat he's going to do,

then why bother praying?

I began to see that it wasn't just an area

that I felt I struggled in.

I began to see that it was something

that maybe many of us struggle with.

So, I took two yearsjust to kind of research

and pray and dig deepbefore I wrote about prayer.

And there was so many thingsthat God taught me personally

in the journey, because thatinitially was my only thought.

Father, teach me how to pray.

Holy Spirit, guide meand show me how to pray.

And one of the first thingsbecame so clear to me

was that prayer was so important to Jesus.

I began to see how often you would read,

like after a busy day hewould send the disciples home

and then Jesus went up themountain to a quiet place

to pray all night.

Or he would get up earlyin the morning and pray.

Or he would withdrawfrom the crowd and pray.

It made me think, if prayerwas so important to Jesus,

it clearly has to be reallyimportant to us, too.

And then I began to see somethingthat actually John Bunyan

summed up beautifully in this quote.

He wrote, "It's better tohave a heart with no words

"than words with no heart."

That God is more concernedabout or more interested

in our presence than our perfection.

In fact, it reminded meof something that happened

the summer that I turned 18.

943 years ago.

I was about to go to seminary,

but I wanted to do something to volunteer

in my little fishing town onthe West Coast of Scotland.

So, I decided that I wouldvolunteer at our senior center.

It was a place where allour seniors could come

for morning coffee and to have lunch,

to have afternoon tea andplay some games with friends.

And I absolutely loved it.

But there was one gentlemanthat I could never reach.

He wouldn't come to the tables for lunch

and so I had to take hislunch to him on a tray.

He would sit against the wallwith his back to the wall.

Most days I would say, here you are.

Enjoy your lunch.

It's so nice to see you again,

and he wouldn't respond at all.

So one day, I thought, Ihave to get more creative.

So, after I brought hislunch to him on a tray,

I then took another chairover and I sat beside him

and I said, "Hi, my name is Sheila

"and I was born in this little town."

But I said, "But one dayI'm gonna go to America."

Well, his face lit up

as if he had just won the lottery,

and he said, I'm from America.

He said, if you everget to America, please,

if you get to Poughkeepsie,

please tell 'em that George said hi.

Well, I had no ideawhat a Poughkeepsie was,

but I told him I would try.

Well, from that day onward

we became just the fastest friends.

And every single day

when I would arrive at the senior center.

I had to take two buses to get there

and sometimes I would be a little late,

but the minute I walkedthrough those doors,

no matter what else was going on,

George would cry out at thetop of his voice, "She came!"

And you know, I thinkthat's how the Lord feels

when we simply sit in his presence.

Maybe just pull up a chair

and sit in the middle of your room

and hear all of heavencry over you, "You came!"

God welcomes and longs for our presence.

One of the other thingsthat I began to realize

is that a lifetime isnot too long to pray.

Maybe you're in asituation where you think

I've been praying and praying and praying

and it doesn't seem asif God is answering,

so I'm just gonna quit.

Let me tell you about a friend of mine.

My mom and my sister, my brother and I,

after my father's death,

moved back to the little townwhere mom was originally from.

And we went to the small Baptist church

where she had gone, and her parents went,

and her grandparents.

We've been in that church for generations.

And every Tuesday night,I would go with my mom

to the prayer meeting.

Now, it was a small church

so there was probablyjust about maybe 20 of us.

But there was one gentleman, Jimmy,

who every single Tuesday night

prayed for the salvation of his wife.

He would pray with tearspouring down his face.

I can't tell you how many times

I ended up in tears with Jimmyas he prayed for his wife.

And I remember asking one night,

asking my mom, how long hasJimmy been praying for his wife?

And she said, well,probably over 30 years.

Well one day, Jimmy said,

he wanted to take my brother Steven and I

and he had a little private plane,

and he wanted to takeus to the little island

way up in north ofScotland where he was from.

And he said we might enjoythe little plane ride

up the West Coast, and thenseeing the little island

where he was from.

We were absolutelythrilled, so we said yes.

And I'll never forget,as we landed in a field.

He had to go around a couple of times

to chase the sheep away.

But we landed in a fieldand then made our way

up this little cobbled street

to a place where the oldchurch, a kirk, as he called it,

was where he used to go and worship.

The door was open, and so we walked up

to the front of the church.

The beautiful old woodcreaked and I thought,

I wonder how many tears and prayers

have been poured out in this place.

And we got to the front andsat down in the front pew,

and Jimmy was looking up at a picture

of Christ carrying backthe sheep that was lost.

And after a little while I said to him,

"Jimmy, do you mind ifI ask you a question?"

And he said, "No, lass."

And I said, "Do you ever wonder

"why God hasn't answeredyour prayer for your wife?"

And he was quiet andthoughtful for a moment,

and then he turned to me and he said,

"He's never failed me yet, lass.

"I don't reckon he'll start now."

Well, several years passed

and I went on to seminary in London,

but one Christmas when I washome for Christmas break,

I discovered that Jimmy had just passed.

And so, I was able to go with my mom

and my sister and my brother

to his memorial service in our church.

And the church was packed with people

whose lives had been impacted

by the faith of this simple Highlander.

But I didn't discover until later that day

that it was at Jimmy's memorial service

that his wife gave her life to Christ,

when she saw the church packed with people

who'd been impacted by her husband.

But then heard the messageof the savior Jimmy loved,

of the savior Jimmy followed all his life,

all the way home.

It was on that day that shegave her life to Christ.

Now, he wouldn't know thatfor another couple of years

until she passed and enteredinto the presence of the Lord.

It just reminded me, a lifetimeis not too long to pray.

Jesus tells a story, I think it's Luke 16,

of the persistent widow.

And it's interesting theway that Luke describes it.

He said, Jesus told thisstory to let us know

that we should never give up praying.

The story of the relentless widow

who wants to get justice from the judge,

but he ignores her.

Scripture makes it clear,he doesn't care about people

and he doesn't care about God.

The kind of person thatprobably some money

would need to pass under the table

before he'd take your case,but she refused to give up.

He would come out of hishouse in the morning,

and there she was.

He would go for lunch, and there she was.

He would come out of therestroom, and there she was.

So, we're told eventuallybecause he was so fed up

hearing from her, he gave her justice.

And Jesus goes on to say, "How much more

"will your heavenly Father

"who loves you be anxiousto answer your requests."

But at the end of that story,

that parable that Jesus told,

there's an interestingverse that I didn't notice

perhaps the first fewhundred times I'd read it.

It says, "When the Sonof man returns to earth,

"how many will he find whohave that kind of faith?"

Jesus equates relentlessprayer with faith in him.

One of the other sweetthings that I discovered,

you find it in the Psalms,

and also in the revelation given to John,

is that the chosen fragrance of heaven

is the prayers of God's people.

In Revelation it talksabout great bowls of incense

being held up before the Father,

and it's the prayers of God's people.

Do you know that every time you pray,

that that fragrance is heaven?

God could have chosen church attendance.

He could have chosen Bible study.

He could have chosen tithing.

No, the chosen fragrance of heaven

are the prayers of God's people.

Some of us perhaps haven'tknown the Lord as long

and maybe you find yourself thinking,

well, I don't even know how to find words.

Do you know that sometimesthe most powerful prayers

are really short.

In 1992, when I ended upin a psychiatric hospital

for a month, I had been in seminary,

I had worked with Billy Graham.

I had had the privilegeof being the co-host

of the 700 Club for five years.

But that first night,as I lay on the carpet

of that little room in a psych hospital,

the only two words I couldget out were these: help me.

But I have to tell you, Ifelt the presence of the Lord

more intensely in those broken,

struggling-for-words moments than I had

in so many of the supposedglory days of the past.

I personally believed that oneof the most powerful prayers

we can ever pray is one word.

Jesus.

Power in the name of the Lord.

When our son Christianwas just a little boy,

I was invited to come andspeak to his first grade class.

And his teacher said,

would you speak to thestudents about prayer?

And I looked out at all theselittle faces and thought,

Lord, what can I sharethat would stay with them?

And I talked to them about oneof the most powerful prayers

simply being the name of the Lord.

I probably, in the next two weeks,

I think it was a couple of weeks later,

I got letters from all the children.

I'm sure the teacher said,as a class assignment,

let's thanks Mrs. Walsh.

But one of the letters I kept

because it impacted me,it impacted me deeply,

and it was from a littlegirl and she said,

"My mom and dad are getting divorced

"and sometimes they get angry,

"and sometimes I'm afraid.

"But now I know I can go into my bedroom

"and close the door, andI can simply pray, Jesus."

I don't know where you are right now.

I don't know what you're facing.

I don't know what you are afraid of.

But I want to remind you the truth

the psalmist David wrote in Psalm 34

when he was at one of thedarkest moments in his life.

He wrote, "Those who look to him for help

"will be radiant with joy.

"No shadow of shamewill touch their faces."

And then he went on in that Psalm to say,

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

"and saves those whoare crushed in spirit."

God is close.

Find a moment to justget away and sit quietly

and hear all of heavendeclare over you, you came.

Let me pray for you.

Father, I thank you so muchfor my brothers and sisters.

But Lord, I want to thank you today

for the power of prayer.

So often, Lord, I thoughtit would change you,

but it's changed me.

So I ask right now Lord,

for my brothers and sisterswho may be struggling

in some area, I ask that your peace

would surround them and fill them.

I ask for your healing to touch them

from the top of their headsto the bottom of their toes.

And Lord, I ask that in these days

we would be those who trust you,

even when we don't have all the answers,

because you are worthy and we love you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen friends.

(peaceful music)