If My People Will Pray — Brian Long

The Conditional Promise of Revival

I live in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and I noticed in the back there, you have some Voice of the Martyr magazines and maps, and they're located in Bartlesville. That's actually where I live. The church that I pastor is actually in Barnsdall, Oklahoma.

It's a small town about 20 miles from Bartlesville. So, long ways from home, but I tell you, I've been blessed already, and you people are very precious people, and I've just been blessed to be here in your state, in this church, and Pastor Don, so good to see you guys tonight coming to join us.

So good to see everyone. Tonight, we're gonna be in Acts chapter 12, is where we'll actually be reading from tonight. Acts chapter 12. But before we read our text, probably most of us, when we think of revival, one of the first verses in the Bible that comes to mind, at least for many of us, is 2 Chronicles 7, 14.

2 Chronicles 7, 14, where God says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.

That is a glorious promise, brothers and sisters, from God to us for revival today. Someone told me one time, they said, Brother Brian, no, you don't understand, that promise was just for Israel. Well, yes, God was speaking to Israel, no doubt, but I wanna tell you tonight that the Bible is not just a history book, it's the living Word of God.

God was speaking to Israel, yes, but God is also speaking today through His Word, and through that very promise. This is a promise from God for revival today, but what you and I have to understand is that it's a conditional promise.

Notice that God says, if my people will, then I will. It's a promise with four conditions. He says, if my people will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. If my people will, then I will.

And tonight, I wanna speak to you about the second part of that promise, the second condition of that promise, and that is, if my people will pray. If my people will pray. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus went into the temple and He found the money changers doing business in the house of God?

There was a righteous indignation, a righteous anger that rose up in the Lord Jesus, and He made a whip of cords, and He drove out the money changers, He turned over their tables, and He said this, is it not written that my Father's house shall be called, what, a house of prayer?

A house of prayer. What about preaching? Preaching is very important, but not my Father's house shall be called a house of preaching. What about teaching? That's very important, teaching the word of God, but not my house shall be called a house of teaching.

My house shall be called a house of prayer. Now, sometimes we think, well, this is the house of God, but brothers and sisters, under the new covenant, the house of God is not made with human hands. And it wouldn't matter if we met here, or if we met under a tent somewhere, or if we met out in the woods out there, wherever the people of God together, there is the house of God, because the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us.

The church, the body of Christ, is the house of God, and therefore, that body of Christ, the church, is to be characterized, above all, by prayer. My house shall be called a house of prayer. God's people should be characterized as a people who know their God, who have a relationship with their God, who are constantly calling out to God, whether it be in praise and worship, singing, supplication, thanksgiving, offering our requests up to God, but a people of prayer.

Prayer must be priority. Listen to some of these quotes from men of God that it was evident the hand of God was upon these men and the way He used them and blessed their ministries. Listen to what they said.

First of all, John Wesley. John Wesley said, God does nothing but by prayer and everything with it. D .L. Moody said, Every movement of the Spirit can be traced to a bent figure. Matthew Henry said, When God intends great mercy for His people, He first sets them a-praying.

Leonard Ravenhill said, No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing. The people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents.

The prayer closet allows no showing off. In the matter of New Testament spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. He said, For this kind of prayer, there is no substitute.

We do it or we die. Prayer. Jeremiah 33 .3, God says, Call unto Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know. Psalm 50, verse 15, God says, And call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify Me.

Over and over again through the Psalms and all the Word of God, God is calling us, His people, to call upon Him. He's waiting. Call unto Me. I have this. I want to show you things you do not know. I want to deliver.

God wants to send revival more than we want to receive it. For that, I'm sure. But He waits. He waits for His people to humble themselves and to pray. Now, why prayer? Because prayer declares our absolute, total dependence upon God.

Prayer is saying, God, I need you and apart from you, I can do nothing. Prayer says, God, my relationship with you is more important than anything else in life. Prayer declares our dependence upon God.

Prayerlessness, on the other hand, is the height of pride and arrogance. Because it's saying, a people who do not pray are really saying, we can handle it. We don't need God. We can have church without God.

We can make decisions without asking God. We can figure it out because we're so smart. It's the height of pride and arrogance to be a prayerless people. Prayer is our lifeline. Prayer is a channel whereby the power of God and the presence of God flows from the throne of God, the throne of grace and mercy to the people of God.

Prayer is what connects us to God. Now, I remember a story about Bak Singh who preached in India. One night he was preaching a meeting and this poor village man from an Indian village came to the meeting that night and he'd never seen how electricity works.

So the whole time he was staring up at the ceiling and he was just gazing upon this light bulb. It was shining, it was giving light to all the house that night. And he was so impressed with that light bulb, after the meeting he came up to Bak Singh and he said, I want to borrow that.

I want to borrow that from you. So they took a cloth or something and unscrewed the light bulb and he gave it to this poor village man and the poor village man took it home. A couple of days later he came back to the meetings and he says, that's no good.

It doesn't work in my house. And Bak Singh said he had made a visit to this poor village man's house and when he walked in he saw right away why it wasn't working in his home. He had taken the light bulb and he tied with a piece of string around the light bulb, he just tied it to his ceiling and he was waiting for it to shine.

There was no electricity. There was no power. There was no connection to the power. Brothers and sisters, prayer is the connection. When we call upon God, that prayer, prayer is the channel whereby the power of God flows into the hearts and lives of His people and of His church.

The Praying Church in Acts 12

Now, let's turn to Acts chapter 12 because I wanted you to see tonight in this 12th chapter of Acts, a wonderful and beautiful example of a praying church and what happens when the church prays. Acts chapter 12, we'll begin in verse one.

It says, now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of John with a sword and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.

Then were the days of unleavened bread and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. So, what's going on here but that King Herod, he was being animated by the devil himself. He had set out to persecute the church, they caught brother James and they killed him.

They cut off his head with a sword. He caught the apostle Peter also and he had planned to do the same thing to Peter but because it was the feast of unleavened bread, it was a religious holiday and it really wasn't appropriate to have an execution that day, so he decided to imprison Peter and to wait till after this holiday to kill him also.

What I want you to see is that it was a very, very dark day in the life of the early church. The enemy had come in like a flood and brothers and sisters, can we not see that it's the same right now? That we're living in very, very dark days.

The enemy has come in like a flood. The devil has attacked the church of Jesus Christ which is such a threat to his kingdom. 1 Peter 5, verse 8 says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

Jesus said this of him. He said, this thief has come to steal and to kill and to destroy. He's come to divide churches. He's come to destroy lives. We have a very real enemy. Revelation chapter 12, verse 12 says,.

For the devil has come down unto you having great wrath because he knows he hath but a short time. And he's aimed his wrath and his fury at the church of Jesus Christ which so threatens his kingdom. He's aimed his arrows at the godly home.

I tell you, more than anything else, Satan wants to destroy marriages, he wants to destroy families, he wants to destroy homes. Do you know how many children will go to bed tonight without either a father or mother in the home?

And they will cry on their pillow at night because of the destruction of the family. Divorce is rampant today. There is a flood of filth and immorality that is sweeping the teenagers away. Teenagers today are dabbling in witchcraft, thinking it's just nothing more than something to play around with, and they're becoming demon possessed.

I know that because I've confronted it. And I've encountered young men and women who just got into it thinking it was harmless, and the devil got a hold of them. I want you to see that we have a very real enemy.

That's why, more than ever before, the church needs to be praying. Because we see that we're living in dark days, the enemy has come in like a flood, there are people in prisons of darkness and bondage.

What is the answer for this world? Jesus. The answer for this, the church, is the power of the Holy Spirit. But God says this, if My people will pray. He waits for us to humble ourselves and pray. Now, verse five says, it tells us that Peter was here being held captive in chains and in prison.

But I want to ask you tonight, how many in this area, right here of Wisconsin, are also in prison and in chains? I'm talking about chains of addiction. I drove around, just drove around this afternoon, there's a bar at every crossroads.

How many are in the grip of alcohol? And it breaks my heart because on the inside of those walls are people in prisons of darkness, despair, bondage, oppression, depression. They're in prison. How many in this area are in prison to methamphetamines, to drugs, to pornography?

This thing is killing its millions and dragging them to hell. How many are in this prison? Prisons of addiction, prisons of sin, chains of bitterness and unforgiveness. That's one of the greatest prisons of all.

To be holding a grudge and to be in a prison of bitterness and unforgiveness towards someone. Verse six says that Peter was asleep in this prison and sadly that is the very state of much of the church in our land today.

She is asleep. There's nothing so alarming as the absence of alarm in the church. That people are not trembling because of sin and trembling at the presence of God and awaken to the fact that people are going to hell outside these walls.

The greatest danger for the church of Jesus Christ is for her to fall into this snare of the satisfied, this pit of complacency and to fall asleep. Oh, the devil would love to lull the church of Jesus Christ to sleep and just have you fall into a place of comfort and complacency because he's not threatened by a sleeping church.

Peter was asleep. The devil doesn't care if there's a church on every street corner as long as it's a prayerless church because he knows that a prayerless church is a powerless church. A prayerless people are powerless people, but oh, when God's people begin to pray, when they begin to cry out to God and lay hold of God's promises and call upon the Lord, the devil trembles.

He trembles even when a grandmother gets upon her knees and begins to intercede for her grandchildren. He trembles when little children pray. He trembles when the church of Jesus Christ comes together in one accord and they begin to pray.

And that's what happens in our text. Peter is kept in prison, but the church prayed. Look at verse five again. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

Verse five is the turning point of this entire chapter. And I'll tell you this, it'll be the turning point of your life tonight. It can be. It can be the turning point of the church. Peter was kept in prison, but the church prayed.

Focused, United, and Fervent Prayer

Now what kind of prayer was it? I want you to notice three things that characterize this praying church. First of all, it was focused prayer. There's two words there in verse five that I would have you to notice.

It says, prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. That may seem very obvious. I mean, someone says, obviously all prayer is made unto God, isn't it, brother Brian? But I want to tell you tonight, there is much prayer that is not being made unto God.

What is focused prayer made unto God? It's prayer that is focused upon God, that is God-centered, that is God-focused, God-conscious. Much of our praying is focused upon self. Much of our public praying is more focused upon what somebody else is thinking about how I pray.

Prayer that is made unto God is removing every distraction, rejecting every distraction that comes at us, and is focusing upon the Almighty God who is our Father in heaven and calling out to Him. Focused prayer, prayer that is made unto God.

Are you really praying prayers that are Christ-centered, God-centered, God-sized prayers? In other words, when you're praying, do you realize you're praying to the One in whom and with whom nothing is impossible?

Nothing is impossible with our God. Are you praying to the One who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth with heaven as His throne and the earth as His footstool? The very One who spoke into the darkness and said, let there be light, and light was, who spoke the word, and planets were formed, galaxies.

This entire universe at the spoken word of God leapt into existence. That's the God to whom we pray. The Almighty God, God of heaven and earth, God who holds this universe in the palm of His powerful, omnipotent hand.

The same God who says to the ocean tide, you can come this far and no further. The same God who created the mountains and the trees and the grass and all that there is. This is the God to whom we pray.

The One who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. The One before whose voice the mountains shake and tremble, the Red Sea parts. That's the God to whom we pray. He's above all power and authority and principalities and rulers and dominions and kings and kingdoms.

He's the One who sits king of the flood. He's the One who stood in a boat with His fearful disciples in the midst of a violent, raging storm and He said, peace, be still. And even the wind and the waves obeyed Him.

That's the Christ. That's the Lord. That's the God. That's the Jesus to whom we pray. He's an Almighty God. He's an all-powerful God. The One who rebukes a fever and it is gone. The One who touched the leper and the leper was made clean.

The One who said to a young girl, Talithai Kumai, and a young girl was raised from death to life. The One who stood outside of a tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth! And Lazarus, having been dead for four days, walked out of that grave alive.

That's the God to whom we pray. The God who heals cancer, who saves sinners and makes them into saints, who takes a murderer and makes him into an apostle. Who opens blind eyes and prison doors, who heals broken hearts and sets captives free.

This is the God who sends fire from heaven. He awakens nations. He revives churches. He transforms cities. That's the God to whom we pray. Is that the God to whom you're praying? Is your prayer made unto God?

Is it God-focused? Many of you know that a couple of years ago, my son was diagnosed with cancer. And it was acute myeloid leukemia. It was the second worst type of cancer in the Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City where we were located.

He had very minimal chances of survival apart from a miracle. And I'll tell you, it was one of the greatest trials that my wife and I had ever endured in our life. But one thing we learned during that time was to call out to God.

And we learned how important prayer was. Not just the prayers we were praying, but the precious saints all over this nation who would call me and write me and email me and say, Brother Brian, I'm praying.

And I knew they weren't just offering up a cliché. But they were praying from the depths of their heart. One precious sister up in Pennsylvania. A brother of mine in Kansas. There's another sister in Colorado who fasted twice a week, two full days a week for five months praying for my son.

That's prayer. Focused prayer. But I'll never forget this. I could share so many stories. But the night when God turned the tide and touched my son, he was at the very brink of death. And I'd been given a promise from God that when we first found out he had cancer, I ran outside and I cried out to God.

And I remember saying, Father, I only know one of two things You could be saying to us. Either You're wanting to take Luke home to be with You, and I know Luke knows You. He would be in heaven. And You want to do that for Your glory?

Or You want to heal him for Your glory? I said, You know how painful it would be for me to let go. But I'm going to trust You either way, whatever You choose. But I cannot make it unless You give me a word.

I have to have a promise from You either way. And the Lord spoke to me so very clear. From John chapter 11, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

He says later on in that chapter, Did I not say unto you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? I laid hold of those promises, and I trusted God with all of my heart because I knew they had come from Him, that He had spoken them to my heart.

He had confirmed it in the heart of my wife. Now, was our face shaken during that time? Listen, many times it was tried in this particular night, more than ever before, because when I was looking at my son in this hospital bed, there was no color in him.

He was as white as these walls. He was vomiting up stuff that was blood, but it smelled. I grew up on a ranch. We had a dump. We called it the dead cow dump. And all the deads, we'd drug out there in the pasture and put them in that dump.

There was a smell of death. I do not exaggerate when I say what my son was vomiting smelled like that. It was the smell of death until he had no strength left in him. There was a lifeless body laying on the bed.

And I remember crying out to God that night from my gut, God, You've given me a promise. Please, Lord. And the Lord spoke to me so clearly. He said, lift your voice in praise. Can you lift your voice in praise when your son is dying?

When there's no evidence and you're looking at him and there's no evidence of him getting well, he's getting worse. And he's at the very brink of death. And God said, lift your voice in praise. And that night, I just began to sing every praise song that I knew.

I sang, oh, and then, oh, Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider how great Thou art. And every praise song, some we've sang tonight, Light of the World. Praise song, I'm just praising Him, singing to Him.

You know what happened? My eyes were opened to a God that was bigger than cancer. Prayer made unto God. Focused upon God. I remember saying that night, what is cancer? What is cancer to You, God? Almighty God!

And I praised the Lord by His grace throughout the night. And I remember saying, Lord, I praise You, I praise You. When the sun came up the next morning, Luke opened his eyes. He began to have strength.

The Lord touched him. We walked out of that hospital long before we were supposed to walk out of the hospital. When we did, they had a party for him. A nurse grabbed me by the shoulder and said, this is amazing.

I said, I know, and I'm just praising God. She said, no, you don't understand. I've worked up here for 30 some odd years. You do not see this. I've never seen it. Where he went through, I've not seen this.

You don't see this, Brian. I praised God. February would be two years cancer-free. He's healthy, He's strong. He can whip me now. I said, no more wrestling. We used to wrestle, but no more. Prayer focused unto God.

God-sized prayer. Believing He's an Almighty God. He's a big God. But notice what else it was. It was united prayer. It says in verse 5, prayer was made without ceasing of the church. Of the church. United prayer.

This is prayer when the church, the body of Christ comes together, and we learn later on here in Acts 12 that the church was gathered at the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. They were gathered together in unity in one accord, and they're all praying in agreement for Peter, their brother.

What a beautiful picture of true Christ-like love and unity. Now, Jesus said it this way. God loves unity in the body of Christ. And He seeks to emphasize it every way in His Word. Here's one place, Matthew 18.

And verse 18. I'll read it up here because I don't, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

When two, even two or three are gathered together in His name, this unity that binds our hearts together, this love for Christ and love for one another. Jesus said when He finds that, He is in their midst.

He is in our midst. It was united prayer. The church had come together and they were praying for their beloved Peter. Listen, when the church stops praying, she starts bickering and backbiting. When the church stops praying, we start criticizing and complaining.

When the church stops praying, she starts decaying from within and she will soon die. Prayer in one accord. Coming together and calling out to God together in one accord. We were having a prayer meeting when I was still at the Baptist church and the Lord had led us to start praying for people in our community who we knew were lost, to pray for them by name.

List their names and to pray for them by name. Well, God put one on my heart right away. His name was Leon Alts. Leon Alts by this time was an older man. He was a big mountain of a man and he had a brother that was just as big as him named Richard Alts.

And Richard and Leon Alts were known by everybody in the community as bullying their way around. They were belligerent. They were arrogant. They had a reputation. The first time I met Leon, he called me a coward.

He tried to provoke me. He cursed the church. He said, I would never come to that church. That's the kind of man he was. One night in prayer meeting, I said, we're going to start praying for Leon Alts to get saved.

You know what one deacon told me? Leon Alts will never get saved. He didn't tell me that. He actually told another pastor that. Leon Alts will never get saved. Another one said, you are wasting your time with Leon Alts.

I said, we're going to pray. And I found more than two to join me in agreement and praying for Leon Alts. Where two or more gathered in my name, there I am. If they shall agree as touching anything, my Father will do it for them in Heaven.

We know from 1 John, if we ask anything according to His will, we shall have what we have asked Him for. And God's not willing that any should perish. I don't believe He's willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So we begin to pray for Leon. This went on for months. New Year's Eve day, about two years ago. Guess who walks into my office? I had just come to the office to grab something and I was headed out the door, and as I turned around to leave, this mountain of a man is standing in the door, only this time, he doesn't have his chest stuck in out and his head high.

He is shaking. He is trembling. He is terrified. There are tears running down his face. I said, Leon... I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I said, Leon, what's wrong? He said, I need help.

I need help now. I said, what's wrong? Sit down. He said, last night... Actually, he was already scheduled that week to have a heart procedure done. Part of his heart was not working. He had several blockages in his arteries.

He said, last night, I rolled over. He said, I'm not even sure I didn't die just for a few seconds. Everything went black. He was shaky. He was terrified. He said, I knew that I knew that I knew I was going to hell.

He said, when I came to, I begged God, please, get me through the morning. He didn't even sleep that night begging God to get him through the morning. If You'll get me through the morning, I'll go up there on that hill and I'll meet with Brother Brian and I'll get right with God.

I'll get right with You. I don't know why he didn't know he could get right right there. So he came out there. I said, Leon, let's get on. I shared the Gospel with him. And I said, now let's get on our knees.

And Leon also got on his knees. I said, I'm not going to pray for you. You pray. I knew what kind of man he was. You pray. You cry out to Jesus. And he did. He cried out for God to have mercy on him, to save him.

He confessed his sin. He asked Jesus Christ to save his soul. And somehow we knew, we knew he had passed from death to life when he got up. He sat down in his chair. I said, Leon, two things. Number one, everyone in this town knows you.

They know the kind of man you were and have been. You have a reputation. Are you willing to boldly testify of Jesus Christ and what He's just done for you? That He's saved your soul? Are you willing to publicly testify this throughout this town?

He said, I am. I said, will you do it? He said, I will. I said, number two. And before I could say anything, he said, I have to go get right with my brother. I said, that's right. He and his brother Richard, four years ago, had gotten a fight over a poker game and hadn't spoke to one another for four years.

I said, are you going to do that? He said, I don't have a choice. I said, will you do that? He said, I will. Well, the first commitment he made, remember, was to testify. That was on, I can't remember what night of the week, but the next church night.

He went to the Baptist church and he stood up and he testified that Jesus Christ had saved his soul. He left the Baptist church and he went to the Assembly of God church and asked the preacher if he could just pause for a moment because he had to say a few words.

He stood up front and testified that Jesus Christ had saved his soul. The church was astonished. Their jaws dropped. He went from the Assembly of God up onto the hill to the Lighthouse church a non-denominational church up on the hill.

They were having revival meetings. He asked permission to testify there. He testified again that Jesus Christ has saved his soul. Hallelujah. Then he went to his brother's house, but there were cars lined up outside.

He said, I can't do it. He's got company. So he went down to the cafe and he got him a cup of coffee. He took a sip of the cup of coffee and the Holy Spirit was so convicting him. He said, company or not, I have to go get right with my brother.

He sat down the cup of coffee, drove back to his brother's house and knocked on the door. His brother's wife answered the door and when she saw him, she just backed up. Speechless. He said, it's okay.

He said, I've come to speak to Richard. Richard came to the door. Four years they had not spoken. Richard came to the door and he said, Richard, Jesus Christ has saved my soul. And I want to say to you that I'm sorry for everything I've done to you.

Will you forgive me? He and his brother embraced these two big men. And he began to weep. Both of them began to cry like little children. Just weep. He was there for four hours. His sister-in-law called me on the phone and said he just left.

He's been here for four hours. Can you believe this? I said, yes, I can. If my people will pray. That's something only God could have done. Today, Leon Alts sits on the front row right over here. Actually, he'd be on that end every single Sunday.

He's a new creation in Christ. If my people will pray. What kind of prayer was it? Focus prayer. Prayer made unto God. What kind of prayer was it? United prayer. It was prayer made of the church. They were in one accord.

You want unity, start praying together. God starts shedding light on differences, these things that will divide us. He will lead us and guide us into all truth by the power of His Holy Spirit. But if you stop praying, you will start bickering and backbiting and cutting and devouring one another.

It's prayer in one accord and lifting our eyes to Jesus that brings about unity in the body of Christ. Calling upon Him. Now, what else kind of prayer was it? One more I want you to see here in verse 5.

But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for Him. Look at those two words. Without ceasing. Without ceasing. Fervent prayer. The Greek word here is ektenes. It literally means stretched out, continual, intense.

Without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5 .17 says pray without ceasing. In other words, it wasn't just a five minute prayer and then we wait to see what happens. This is fervent prayer. This is prayer that lays hold of God and asks and keeps on asking.

Seeks and keeps on seeking. Knocks and keeps on knocking. Until you get an answer from God. Many commentators and scholars believe that this prayer meeting that the church had going on at Mary's house lasted for an entire week.

A whole week of prayer for their brother Peter. James 5 .16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. To pray fervently means to pray from your heart. To cry out to God with all that is within you.

1 Samuel 1 .15. Hannah was accused of being drunk when she was praying for little Samuel. We have a little Samuel down here. She said, I have not been drinking. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. They thought she was drinking.

It was fervent prayer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Lamentations 2 .19. Pour out your hearts like water before the face of the Lord. Now some would say, now that's not necessary. That's unbelief to ask God for the same thing more than once.