Praying in Faith...

I was faced the other morning with one of the “which way will I go” scenarios.  I needed to go grocery shopping and also pick up some supplies for my yard equipment since the lawns are coming out of dormancy in our area.  With those two needs the answer was simple… it’s off to my local Super Walmart!  The governor of our state had just recently enacted a “Safer at Home” policy and strongly suggested that people in the more vulnerable groups stay at home except for essential needs like food!

Well, guess who’s in one of the vulnerable groups?  You guessed it… me!  Since I’m in my sixties I am characterized as one of those folks in your neighborhood that the younger residents should be checking on.  Can you believe that?  When I heard talk of that on a local radio station I thought, “well that’s nice.”  Then it hit me that I’m the oldest guy in our cul-de-sac… and I’m the one they’d be checking on!  But then again, Fiver and I are out a lot and I’m pretty sure that they can see were doing quite well!

Back to my original thought though, in preparing to go shopping, it seemed like I could not get away from all the fearful news being broadcast on the radio, TV and the regular alerts on my phone!  Who was I going to trust?  The scary news or the Good News of God’s Word?  Well, of course, you know I was gonna go with the Word, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to deal with the “What If’s?”

So, on the day I planned to go, I got up at the regular time, did my Bible Study, took the dog for a short walk and was out of the house before nine.  I decided that I wasn’t going to go during the “Senior’s Hour” that Walmart’s are now offering for two reasons.  First, because it was at 6:00 in the morning and secondly because I felt I’d be safer going when there wasn’t a lot of people around with potentially low immune systems or other health difficulties.  So, off I went at nine.  When I arrived, I quickly boned up on God’s promise of protection in the 91^st Psalm and went off toward the entrance to the store.  As the door swooshed open, I heard that small-still-voice on the inside of me say (like I’ve heard on many occasions), “Now this is where the rubber meets the road.  Are you going to actively believe Me and My Word… or not?”  

Well, I just nodded my head in silent agreement, sanitized the handle on the cart and went on my merry way!   The store was not very crowded and most of the shoppers were around my age or older – so much for the senior hour!  I had to congratulate the cashier as the store was fairly well restocked with only a relatively few empty shelves.  I got everything I needed and more!  I was forced though, to get some larger containers of things I needed… so Fiver and I will be set for a while!

That trip to the store and the mental and spiritual calisthenics that I endured came back to mind today as I read from Mark 11:22-24.  I was looking at The Passion Translation and realized that one of the things that I like about this Bible is the way it emphasizes the idea of what I call “Actively Believing” or the true meaning of having faith in God and His Word.  Jesus sets the standard for us here in Mark 11 when He told His disciples,

“Let the faith of God be in you!  Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done.  This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” (TPT)

Robertson’s Word Pictures explains that the key to this kind of faith is found in Jesus’ remarks that are summed up in verse 24.  He wrote, “That (this) is the test of faith, the kind that sees the fulfilment before it happens.”  In his commentary on this verse, Joseph Benson states that “This exhortation, however, is not to be considered as being exclusively given to our Lord’s apostles and first disciples: it is also given to us, and to all his true followers, to the end of the world.” 

Now that’s exciting don’t you think?  When Piper and I came to the realization of this Biblical truth in the early years of our marriage, it set us totally free to dream big, plan big and do big things for God.  But one of the things that repeated itself throughout the last eight years of Piper’s life were the people who would ask to pray for her… and then pray the same thing every time, continually asking God to heal her.  Please don’t get me wrong for I am sure their hearts were in the right place and I appreciated their love for her… but according to Mark 11:24, that’s not the way to pray!  Every time I heard that type of prayer, I would hear Piper’s sweet little crackly voice in my head reminding me that “Jim, we’re believer’s not beggars!”

Philippians 4:6 tells us to pray in faith, and then give God thanks for the answer (according to Mark 11:24 that we believe we HAVE received.).  The King James Version of Mark 11:24 says that “when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

That’s where our faith comes in.  We pray and believe at that very moment (by faith in Him and His love and faithfulness to us) that we have received the answer to our prayer and then thank Him for His answered prayer until we see the manifestation in the natural realm.

That’s why I like to think of it as “Actively Believing” because the Believer must stay actively connected to his or her prayer by their continual faith in the Lord until they see the answer.  Simple Right?  Well, not really!  I’ve found that it’s much harder to stay in active faith for something you’re standing in faith for, than to keep repeating the same request over and over… not really knowing if you’re going to get an answer or not.  Remember the definition of faith in The Passion Translation declares that “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long (or believe) for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.”  (Hebrews 11:1) 

That makes it kind of clear doesn’t it?  It’s like that small-still-voice I heard the other morning saying “Now this is where the rubber meets the road.  Are you going to actively believe Me and My Word… or not?”  

Well… I’m getting long-winded here!  So, I’d best shut up and let you chew on all this over the weekend!  And have a great weekend around the home while you’re doing it!  By the way, my trip to the store was great.  People seemed happy, upbeat and kept their distances.  When I got home, I washed my clothes and showered… just to follow through on the recommended procedures I read about… while I trusted in the Lord, stayed in faith and was thankful for His Psalm 91 protection!