Mark 11:24 NIV
Therefore I tell you,
whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will
be yours.
How Confident Are About Praying?
A number of years ago we went to Disneyland and our
daughter was only three. She loved to
dress up in princess outfits and she had a number that she brought for our trip
there. One day she could dress as
Cinderella, another as Snow White and the next she was prepared to be Belle. In fact she could change in the middle of the
day and be a different princess at lunch and dinner. Her face would light up when she spotted
Arial or Belle or Pocahontas mingling in the crowd. We had to wait for Rachel to stand in line
and greet each of the princesses she came across. There was even a lunch meet
and greet that Rachel attended. Rachel
was mesmerized by the parades when the princesses all came together in one
place and she stared at them all wide-eyed.
Reality and fantasy came together in a mystical union. That is until reality rose up and trampled
fantasy one cloudy afternoon when Rachel spotted one of the Disneyland princesses
standing out behind a building smoking a cigarette. She was stunned and she never forgot the
disappointment she felt at the unexpected sight.
Many have given up on Christianity because they
believe it is like the Disney princesses; it is all a dress up that in the end
is a sham. Perhaps you have struggled
with believing the Bible. There is much
about it that is interesting and helpful but some of the stories in it appear
to be too good to be true. The promises
about prayer in particular hang you up as it does not seem like God holds up
His end of the bargain. You pray but the
outcome is not what you had hoped. Or
worse, your praying seems to have been a waste of time and left you discouraged
and feeling snookered by empty promises of God’s help.
Two case studies found in the Bible shed a bit of
light on our discussion. When Lazarus, a
good friend of Jesus, became deathly ill, his sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
(John 11: 3 NIV) When Jesus did not do
anything about Lazarus’s condition and he died, both sisters were dumbfounded
by His lack of help. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was
and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died." (John 11:32 NIV) How closely this mirrors the experience of
many who have prayed and been disappointed by the results!
Prior to the birth of Christ, an elderly widow lived
at the Temple and spent her days praying.
There was also a prophetess,
Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had
lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow
until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and
day, fasting and praying. (Luke 2:36-37 NIV) We have no idea what sorts of matters were on
her prayer list but we must say she had to wait an awfully long time before
meeting the Messiah. Not only that,
should we just ignore the fact that this woman of prayer lost her husband after
only seven years of marriage? How much
disappointment with prayer was locked up within the heart of this elderly widow
for all those years!
Our problem, when it comes to praying, is not just
the seeming slowness or even lack of responses to prayer. We face a much more daunting task when it
comes to believing in God. We lack a
physical connection to Him that can make trusting in Him more reasonable and
sustainable. We can’t see Him, hear Him
or touch Him and that is not normal when it comes to relationships. It can be argued that we don’t, hear, see or
touch those we meet online and yet believe they are who they say they are but
experience with fraud makes many such “encounters” impossible to trust
completely. When it comes to God, we
don’t even have a picture profile to consider!
Yet, is it insane to believe in a God we cannot see, touch or hear?
Author Philip Yancey suggests we should consider the
case of the woman who has been blind since birth who has never seen light and
cannot see it. How would you prove the
existence of light to her? You could
present her with products of light such as heat or plant life but that does not
prove light to her. Light is real and
not at all imaginary but to the one who has no sensitivity to it, light is just
hearsay, only taken on trust. If
everyone in the world is blind from birth, men, women and children, light as
described in books is to the entire crowd “religious” or “unscientific”. It might be considered “mythological” and yet
it is as real as the birds chirping in the trees. The doubt in the minds of those who cannot
see that light exists would not mitigate the reality of light.
We certainly lack the Spiritual sense needed to
scientifically “prove” the presence of demons and angels, God and Satan but
that is what we must accept when we speak of God and prayer. Jesus did not try to pretend something else
was the case. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
(John 4:24 NIV) Rarely does God make
Himself available to our physical senses.
Yet He has done so and many of the blind in our world just won’t believe
the accounts given of His presence being seen, heard, touched or smelled. There
is something else we must consider when it comes to knowing about the existence
of God and believing in prayer.
The American Journal of Psychiatry reported a study
of Harvard students who had experienced a “religious conversion. They discovered that these students showed a
dramatic change in their lifestyles.
Their use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes went down spectacularly. What is more, they did much better
academically than they did before their conversion and were less likely to
suffer from depression and despair when compared to the rest of the student
body. What does it mean when an internal
transformation which is attributed to God results in an externally proven
outcome? Religious Americans are proven
to be more likely to give money to someone homeless, spend time with someone
depressed, return excess change to a clerk, help someone find a job and donate
blood. At what point do those who do not
have the sensory equipment to see or touch God begin to consider the facts
regarding the accomplishments of the God they cannot see?
Faith is the operating system of our relationship
with God and that is not going to change!
We live by faith, not by sight.
(2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV) Jesus
answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has
sent." (John 6: 29 NIV) For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This is the way God works with us. We must have faith in Him that He exists if
we are to have a relationship with Him that transforms our lives. It will not be altered; this plan of
God. No amount of complaining that God
does not let us see, hear or touch Him will change His mind. The Lord will do in us and through us what
our faith in Him permits. It has been shown
that with God operating in people’s lives, crime, drug use, violence and gang
activities go down. What proof do you
need to recognize that you pray to a God who changes people’s lives and
literally is a part of what they do?
When you pray, the Lord will transform your
character, create in you a hatred of your own sin and generate a growing desire
to be close to Him. He will guide you so
that you will be able to make sense of what to do. He will work in others and change them
too. God will alter your circumstances
so that in the end all you face and encounter will turn out for your good. To pray, you must have faith to pray. To communicate with God who is real, you must
believe that He is real. You will never
be certain that God exists or that He is part of your praying until you
actually decide to believe He exists and then pray. Once that transaction takes place, the Lord
will move Heaven and Earth to keep you close to Him supernaturally and
coherently. You may not yet believe God
loves you fully but that will come as you trust Him enough to pray. Faith opens your mind to pray; miracles
always follow faith…they don’t come before it.
A miracle is nothing more complex than this. It is the discovery that God is in actuality
a part of your life and giving you the very best He has to offer in response to
your praying. So pray. Pray often.
Pray with your mind on God and your heart open to whatever He gives you.
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