Luke 2:36-37: “Anna… served God.” Anna was a prophet who earnestly hoped for the coming of Christ. She remained a widow for many years, never remarrying, but devoting herself to the Lord with “fasting and praying night and day.” The Bible teaches that the unmarried state can be a greater blessing than the married. Paul states that the unmarried have greater opportunity to be concerned about the things of the Lord― how to please Him and give Him undistracted devotion (see 1 Cor 7:32-35).

“Pray without ceasing,” (1 Thes 5:17)
We cannot spend all times on our needs, but it is possible to have prayerful attitude at all times. This attitude is built upon acknowledging our dependence on God, realising His presence within us, and determining to obey Him fully. Then, we will find it natural to pray frequently, spontaneous, short prayers. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer, but should be an outgrowth of those times. Pray without ceasing. “Without ceasing” does not mean to be constantly uttering formal prayers, rather, it implies recurrent prayer (i.e., God-conversation in our hearts) of all kinds and on all occasions throughout the day, conversations and longings such as happen naturally with those whose minds are focused on Him (Luke 18:1; Rom 12:12; Eph 6:18; Col 4:2).

The Secret Of Answered Prayer
Abide in Christ! Believing Faith! Forgive! Prayer of agreement! Persevere!
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you,” (Jn 15:7).
“Abide in Christ.” The secret of answered prayer is remaining in Christ. The more intimate our life in Christ is through prayers, fasting, worship, meditation and study of the scriptures, the more our prayers will be in line with the nature and words of Christ, and thus the more effectual our prayers will be (see 14:13; 15:4, Ps 66:18).

The conditions by which we remain- “abide”- in Christ are:
1. Keeping God’s word continually in our hearts and minds and making it the guide for our actions.
2. Maintaining the habit of constant intimate communion with Christ in order to draw strength from Him.
3. Obeying His commands, remaining in His love (v.10) and loving each other (vv.12,17).
4. Keeping our lives clean through the word, resisting all sins and yielding to the Spirit’s direction (v3; 17:17; Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16-25; Eph 5:26; 1 Pet 1:22)

Believing Faith!
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them,” (Mark 11:24).
“believe … you shall have them.” Faith that receives is not something humanly produced; rather, it is a believing faith imparted to the believer’s heart of God Himself (see 9:23).
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