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Does anyone believe in the power of prayer and fasting? I have gone on 3 40 day fast and God did not acknowledge me?

I’m not sure how I feel about this and maybe it’s just because of my ignorance so please don’t be offended or take it the wrong way. The church I’m currently attending has couple of associate pastors and during service when they pray (opening prayer/during service/communion/etc), they read off prewritten prayers (in their own words). It’s okay that they prepare prayer for service ahead of time and have prayers prepared as well but reading straight off the paper? I don’t know.... For some reason it bothers me more than it really should. I feel like as leaders of the church it’s kind of strange for them to do that. From time to time, members from the congregation (those who hold somewhat a leadership role within the church) do the praying and they all take their written prayer and read them striaght off the paper. There’s somewhat of a leniency towards them, for pastors to do that? Its kind of their job or rather part of their job (it’s our job as well to pray but that’s a different topic). Personally I think it’s weird and strange for pastors to do this. I’ve never seen pastors (other members) do this at other churches (the church I’m currently attending is Presbyterian if that changes anything). To me it’s like a surgeon bringing in notes during surgery. It’s fine if they prepare, write down what ever they need to do before the actually surgery but to bring it in the operation room? It just feel half hearted or not prepared. To come up I’m front of the congregation during services with a piece of paper, especially pastors, it’s unsettling for me. I have a negative view of this and don’t really know how to or what to feel about this.

I wanted to share with everyone just how important prayer is. I have started a new website that my prayer group work on praying for everyday. My website is not really getting anywhere so I will need people to like my facebook page. I pray that noone sees this as selling because our website is for praying not for profit. My vision is to be praying for our nation 1 person at a time. Please like us on facebook so that I can get the word out!!! We have a blog, poetry, and I will direct all of my traffic to this forum for people who want to discus prayer with others. I really hope and pray you guys can help me out.. not asking for money just support with a like on facebook. Here is my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/unitedchristianprayers

Jesus made this promise: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). There is only one part of this verse that most Christians really look at and that’s “you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” I myself long ago wanted to treat God as if he was some magical genie who was there to give me everything I’ve ever wanted. The problem with that, is there’s another part of the verse that we must notice here. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you” The Greek word for abide is Thayer’s which is a strong word and means to remain, abide or not to depart. If we want to receive the life God calls us to have we must first remember to not depart from his ways. He makes us a pretty incredible offer here, but most of us choose to ignore following Jesus to focus on the desires of our flesh. The offer: you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you The terms: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you”