02/23/18 - Mark 11

Feb 23, 2018 – Mark 11

Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

Instead of praying about what you hope may happen, pray for what you believe will happen---praying should be selfless belief.

Any person of faith will eventually be asked to pray for things that seem useless.  Like praying for a dying patient to be healed.  Or praying for a lazy student’s grades to improve.  Or praying for peace on earth when tensions continue to rise.  You KNOW the prayer is possible, but you’re not sure you believe it will happen.  So in order to pray but not damage the person’s faith in God, you add the ultimate caviat to the prayer:  “If it is your will God, … ”.  (Of course, that is a cop-out, but it helps us feel better at the time.)

Jesus wasn’t worried about us ‘feeling better’ in prayer, He wanted to teach us to ‘feel powerful’ in prayer.  Power of prayer is not in praying what people want, while giving God the cop-out.  Power in prayer is about praying for what you believe, and trusting the belief to happen.  While that may seem subtle, there is great power in belief.  Belief is not about getting what we want, it’s about discerning what God wants. 

Some interpret this verse to support them praying for their desires – that if you pray and believe it will give you what you want.  But Jesus is talking about praying, not wishing.  You can wish for anything, but praying is not about us.  Praying is about God.  Praying is a conversation where God is the dominant voice and we are trying to listen & connect with Him.  Intercessory prayer is about getting so in tune with God that we capture His will and become a part of the conversation on an issue.

So in the case of a dying patient – ask God for his healing hand, but also pray for God to become present in the person’s life, and place His angels around the person.  Pray for God to give wisdom to the doctors, for the family to sense God’s presence in their pain, and for other promises from Scripture.

For the lazy student’s grades – ask God to intervene in their lives, removing every distraction and increasing their retention.  But also ask God to reward their level of hard work with appropriate grades (both for when they try hard, and when they goof off).

For peace on earth – ask God to bring peace to people’s hearts, and calm spirits to world leaders, so that hostility doesn’t erupt and people can be saved.  Pray for peace of people with God, that will bring more peace on earth to men.

Pray for what you believe will happen, instead of what makes the person feel good (or you feel good).  Certainly pray for miracles – God is a God of miracles!  But bring power to your prayers by praying out of belief.  That doesn’t mean praying for selfish results (although everyone is at least partially guilty of selfish prayers at times).  It really means praying for selfless beliefs.