PROTOCOL

my understanding of this word is based on a READERS' DIGEST article of maybe 10 years ago about a doctor seeking to help hospitals be more successful in healing people and not harming them. the doctor came up with a list of things that each health worker (doctor, nurse, all!) must follow in contact with patients and their records. the list was called a protocol. the fact of having the list in black and white before them, and requirement that they check off items only as they do them or insure that they are done, immensely helped health workers succeed in helping well.

what i am pondering here is the possibility of discovering a list of things that we as Christians must do in order to have our prayers answered.

that statement maybe sounds selfish and naive in its bare-bones form, but let me quickly clarify it by referring first to James' admonition at JAMES 4:3
"When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives (that you may spend what you get on pleasure.)"

(i'll write more later.)