“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” - James 1:6
If you order something from a shopping channel, it isn't unreasonable to expect a package in a few days. When you order a cheeseburger at a McDonald's drive thru, you expect it to be ready by the time you reach the checkout window. When you leave a voicemail for a friend, you anticipate a return call.
However, do you expect any results when you pray? When you ask for things in prayer, do you really expect an answer? You see, it is one thing to pray, it is another thing to pray with faith. So many treat prayer like a wishing well, they throw their request in, hoping for an answer, but not really expecting one.
Faithless prayers cast doubt on the integrity of God. If we pray without faith, it reveals that we have little or no confidence that God hears and answers prayer. Yet shouldn't we believe God's promises about prayer? Hasn't He promised to hear and answer our prayers? Why don't we believe Him?
Most believers claim to believe that God hears and answers their prayers, but there seems to be a huge gap between theory and practice. In theory, they believe God answers prayers, but in daily practice, this kind of faith seems to be absent from their lives.
James wrote, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” James teaches us to pray with faith, but also note his word to those who pray without faith: “... let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” In other words, faithless prayers bring about fruitless results.
This may explain the lukewarm nature of many believers. After conversion, we prayed with faith and God did exciting things in response. Yet over time, our faith has been clouded by our daily routine, disappointments and trials. At one point, faith was like a mighty inferno, but now it is only embers.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that we moved our trust away from God and placed it on our prayer. Our faith should never be in our prayers, but instead, our confidence should be in the One we are praying to.
While we may be impressed with long prayers, God is not. John Bunyan once wrote, “In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” God wants us to approach Him with faith. Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Let's heed the words of Jesus from Mark 11:22-24: “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Prayer is more than a spiritual discipline. It is the Christian's privilege to speak directly with God. He has invited us to come to the throne and speak with Him. When we pray, it is a time when we commune with Almighty God.
When we pray, we must come to Him by faith. The book of Hebrews teaches us, “... for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Notice two things in this verse. When we come to Him, we must believe that He is. We aren't wasting our breath or our words when we pray, because He does exist. Secondly, we are taught that we must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. The Bible teaches us to pray with that kind of faith.
Are we diligently seeking Him? Do we believe that we'll be rewarded for this effort? It is one thing to seek His blessings, but are we seeking Him?
One of the problems we face is to pray based on emotions, rather than praying by faith. We are emotional people, but our emotions can easily beguile us. Although we may pray with great emotions at times, we should still pray when our emotions are dormant. If you only pray when you have an emotional “high,” you won't pray very often. God doesn't expect us to pray only when we “feel like it.” We pray with faith, not by emotions. Faith sees past the changing emotions and visualizes the One on the throne. We approach Him with dependence, relying on Him for help, trusting that He will hear and answer our prayers.
We can only come to the Father through the Son. We approach the throne of grace based on the merits of Jesus Christ. In His Name, we have access to the Father. Our faith in Christ is the key to a fruitful prayer-life.
By faith, let us come to the throne of grace today!
No comments:
Post a Comment