27 Seconds

Tony D. Guhr

Contents

Foreword Welcome

Chapter 1 7 days without prayer makes one weak 1

Chapter 2 The President would like to meet with you ......................... 5

Chapter 3 Practice makes permanent ................................................... 9

Chapter 4 Getting started 17

Chapter 5 You have an appointment................................................... 21

Chapter 6 God has already approved a prayer list .............................. 29

Chapter 7 Practicing Forgiveness 35

Chapter 8 Prayer-Prep Promises ......................................................... 45

Chapter 9 Prayer is not a duty but a relationship................................ 51

Chapter 10 No doubt about it 61

Chapter 11 Getting to a correct view of God ....................................... 69

Chapter 12 Does God hear my prayers? (12 men and a vacation) ....... 81

Chapter 13 Building your own history of walking with God 87

Chapter 14 Putting prayer to work for you ........................................... 97

Chapter 15 Faith is decision-making based on the promises of God .. 111

Appendix Gaining a wider view, Promises and Provisions 119

Final Thoughts ...................................................................................... 125

Acknowledgements ............................................................................... 127

About the Author 129

12

Does God hear my prayers? (12 Men and a Vacation)

This is a true story.

My friend Steve has provided a Bible discussion meeting every Wednesday night for the last ten years or so to a group of 12 men that are residents of a house created to assist men who want to end their reliance upon alcohol and end the resulting homelessness. Some of the men might believe there is a God, others don’t know, and some are quite sure that there is no actual God in the Universe.

Last year on one Wednesday night Steve asked the men if they had ever been on vacation. Many simply cited living under a bridge for ten or twenty years as their camping experience! When he asked them if they would be interested in going on vacation with him, they all agreed to a four-day weekend at a lake house in Arkansas with boating, swimming, grilling, and kicking back for a few days away from the city.

On the drive down, one of the men (Bob) in the truck cab with Steve made a reference to their Bible readings and discussions and asked, “Does God actually hear our prayers? Could I ask God for something and see if God hears me and if He will answer me?”

Steve asked Bob what he might want to ask for. Bob was quick to say, “I do not know where any of my family lives or how to contact them. I have not seen or heard from my brother in 20 years. I would like to ask God to help me find my

brother.” Steve confirmed that was a good prayer with a good motive and God would hear His prayer. With no hesitation Bob blurted out, “God if you can hear my prayer, I would like your help in finding my brother. Amen.”

This unlikely group of vacationers drove on to the lake, unpacked, and began an eventful and memorable vacation. On the second day, after pulling truck tire inner tubes and dumping these men into the lake with sharp turns behind a speedboat, they loaded Bob on the tube for his turn. Pulling away from the shore at 3 mph, Bob fell out of the tube! Steve pulled around and encouraged him to jump back into the tube. Bob called out that he could not, being in some way injured in his fall out of the tube. Steve jumped in and pulled him back to shore, realizing Bob had snapped his femur bone and now was in great pain and in need of help. EMS arrived and transported him to a Harrison, Arkansas hospital.

That evening the group drove into Harrison for supper and to visit their friend Bob at the hospital. The hospital staff explained they had no doctors qualified to do surgery on such a complex injury and had sent him by ambulance 75 miles north to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to have the leg surgery done there. Because of the great distance, Steve and the remaining men planned to go by Springfield on Sunday afternoon on their way back to the city.

When they arrived on Sunday at the hospital in Springfield, Steve went in to ask what room Bob was in. The staff explained the hospital was full and that Bob was not in a room. The staff had asked Bob if he would prefer staying in a hospital bed in a waiting room or if he would be willing to be taken to the furnace room of the hospital in the basement? Note: With this oddity of room choices, at this point, you are encouraged to begin keeping track of what specific acts of God were required for God to answer Bob’s simple prayer.

Bob, being accustomed to homelessness and liking his privacy, chose the furnace room. The hospital staff went on to

The “Lord’s Prayer” has been memorized by 100s of millions of people all around the world and is recited every Sunday in hundreds of thousands of churches across the country.

Interestingly this Prayer is recited and sung in 400 year old, archaic, Shakespearean English! Everyone recites the Prayer following the language of the King James Version of the Bible from the year 1611. Many of the words used and their meanings are no longer clear.

“27 Seconds” proposes some simple and basic adjustments to make this Prayer, taught to us by Jesus Christ, even more meaningful in our personal prayer time.

• Uses today’s common language

• Encourages the use of the Prayer on a daily basis instead of weekly or only occasional

• Keeps the same topics Jesus taught

• Changes the plural of persons to singular

• Remains the same 27 seconds time to recite as it did 2000 years ago when Jesus taught it!

If you are like many of us who are so very busy every day, it becomes challenging to plan a time for private prayer with God our Father. The brevity of the prayer Jesus taught the disciples makes it clear Jesus had you and me in mind! If our Father God would like to visit with you and me for 27 seconds each new day, what arguments can we offer that I do not have enough time to meet with the Creator of the Universe?

You are invited to consider this 27 Seconds as a new start for your own life in making meaningful contact with our Father God every new day He gives you.

About the Author

TONY D. GUHR has worked in a number of different jobs in various industries ranging from construction to convention management to manufacturing to international trade, building a dozen companies from their inception. Each engagement persuaded him over the years he ought to accept the invitation of Christ and learn to pray, to interact with God Almighty, our Father God.