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And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him (Mark 11:22-24, ESV).
Recently, I listened to a podcast by a teacher I respect, who said, “If you stop believing that with God all things are possible, it’s either because of bad teaching or disappointment.”
Considering his statement, I think he was half-right about the two reasons we don’t receive answered prayer or grow in our faith, but he left out two reasons that should be included. Let’s review the teacher’s two reasons, and then I will add two more.
The teacher’s two reasons:
1~Good Teaching
The New Testament uses superlative words when discussing prayer. Within the teaching of Jesus, there’s no fine print of exceptions. He consistently says things like, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.”
One of my favorite superlative statements of answered prayer is 1 John 5:15, “And we know that he hears us in whatever we ask; we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
With the Apostle John, at the time of this writing, Jerusalem had been destroyed, all the other apostles martyred, along with great persecution of the church throughout the Roman Empire, and yet he still believed God does the impossible.
I find strength in 1 John 5:15; no matter the circumstances, let’s keep praying.
2~Hope
Cynics and critics abound in both print and electronic delivery toward the goodness and greatness of God, the Bible full of errors, hypocrisy in the church, and often, very often in the bio of these skeptics, we find great hurt, an unanswered prayer, or abuse caused by other believers, as a cause of the disappointment.
The Apostle John kept his positivity, eventually being entrusted to receive greater revelations or the Great Revelation as he then authored the Book of Revelation.
Now let me add…
3~God’s Will
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).
Faith doesn’t give us carte blanche to make demands of God. The superlative “asking and it will be done” language of the New Testament assumes the request comes from a person seeking God’s will.
There’s prevalent theology in the U.S.A. about building our faith to get more answers. However, if the request isn’t God’s will, no machinations of supposed faith will have an impact. If the request isn’t of God, we can’t have enough faith, as God grows our faith and it’s given only for His will.
Only those walking the narrow path of God’s purposes can expect the impossible.
4~Spiritual Warfare
God’s ultimate will can be thwarted. What!? Consider Adam, Eve, and creation!
It wasn’t God’s will, but it allowed for His higher purpose, which none of us fully understands. As believers, we experience loss and unanswered prayer because the battle is real — this doesn’t give evil the ultimate victory, as Satan has already been defeated by the blood of Jesus.
One great prayer warrior once told me, “Intercessors lose a few battles but never the war.”
Four principles to remember for effective praying…
- Believe the Bible, not your experience
- Hope is the anchor of faith
- God’s will yields answered prayer
- Greater is He who is in us!
Amen!