If you send up your petition to God, He says He hears you. What is your evidence? Do you feel any better than before? Do you think of and examine your feelings to see if some great change has taken place within? You should step out on the Word of God, and go straight forward, knowing that He answers your prayers, because He has promised to give, if you ask. Thus by exercising faith, [you] bring about the answer to your petitions. As you work to answer your own prayers, you will find that God will reveal Himself unto you.... Begin now to reach higher and still higher. Prize the things of heaven above earthly attractions and inducements.... Learn how to pray; learn how to bear a clear and intelligent testimony, and God will be glorified in you. If you trust God, if you commit the keeping of your souls unto Him as unto a faithful Creator, you will have the sweet assurance of His love.—Manuscript 85, August 30, 1901, “Teachers to Have an Abiding Christ,” talk given at a church school teachers’ institute, Healdsburg, California. (UL 256.5) MC VC