Believing How...?
It is fruitful for us to trust in God in hope rather than out of despair. How one believes when he prays is telling of what he believes in the nature of God.
What do I mean?
Consider this...
I pray for a job, because I have been unemployed for two months (at no fault of my own). I feel like a victim of tragic circumstances and become depressed. Out of apathy, I find it more and more difficult to put in applications and go to my interviews. To put it plain, I force myself through the process, assuming nothing will come out of it. When I pray for a job at this point, it's out of despair.
Contrast this scenario with this one...
I pray for a job for my wife, because I have seen how God works in my life and how he always provides my every need, even if in His own timing. I am overjoyed at being in His near presence, having access to a Holy God who I have no right to draw near to, aside that privilege earned by Christ. I take heart in knowing that He is sovereign and in control, and that He loves me as His own. When I pray for a job at this point, it's in hope.
You see, this is an account of the past two months for me. I was let go of my job for no fault of my own. I became bitter and bleak and struggled to motivate myself as job offers came and went. Eventually, out of the blue, a great career opportunity opened itself to me with no effort on my part (I didn't even put the application in). I am now happily employed, in a wonderful work environment, with like-minded, positive-spirited. I am taken seriously where previously I was taken for granted.
This morning, I prayed in hope for my wife who is getting ready to interview for a position for which she has spent 6 years preparing for. I realized how the expectation in my prayer was focused on the sovereign goodness of God, rather than my circumstance. Contrary to my persistent negativity, God is unchanging and He has promised to give me life and life more abundantly. He has promised to answer our prayers in ways that exceed our imagination. Whether in life nor in death, He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us, and that by Christ, He has forgiven our sin and made us to reign with Him.
God knows our hearts. He knows our struggles. He knows our shortcomings and failures. He is aware of that sinful lurch that still bobbles around in our mind, ceasing control of us at times, but He is also still present within us, kindly awaiting for us to humble ourselves and yield to His control.
These characteristics of God are rooted in Scripture, verified as truth, and validated by the Christian experience. If we allow our outlooks to dim and we forget any of these truths, we believe in a false God. YHWH becomes a god of our understanding, which is not the God of the Bible, neither is it the God who saved us in Christ. Christ is a God who is grasped, understood, and felt by the transformed heart that He died to save. Any understanding less than this, is an understanding darkened by sin, yet still the Holy Spirit kindly awaits in our being, ready to take over as we yield to His sovereignty.
If you find that your prayers are a bit out of joint (like mine usually are.) Take a moment to think about what type of faith is undergirding that prayer. What is it built upon? Is it built upon hope? Or is it built upon despair?
What do I mean?
Consider this...
I pray for a job, because I have been unemployed for two months (at no fault of my own). I feel like a victim of tragic circumstances and become depressed. Out of apathy, I find it more and more difficult to put in applications and go to my interviews. To put it plain, I force myself through the process, assuming nothing will come out of it. When I pray for a job at this point, it's out of despair.
Contrast this scenario with this one...
I pray for a job for my wife, because I have seen how God works in my life and how he always provides my every need, even if in His own timing. I am overjoyed at being in His near presence, having access to a Holy God who I have no right to draw near to, aside that privilege earned by Christ. I take heart in knowing that He is sovereign and in control, and that He loves me as His own. When I pray for a job at this point, it's in hope.
You see, this is an account of the past two months for me. I was let go of my job for no fault of my own. I became bitter and bleak and struggled to motivate myself as job offers came and went. Eventually, out of the blue, a great career opportunity opened itself to me with no effort on my part (I didn't even put the application in). I am now happily employed, in a wonderful work environment, with like-minded, positive-spirited. I am taken seriously where previously I was taken for granted.
This morning, I prayed in hope for my wife who is getting ready to interview for a position for which she has spent 6 years preparing for. I realized how the expectation in my prayer was focused on the sovereign goodness of God, rather than my circumstance. Contrary to my persistent negativity, God is unchanging and He has promised to give me life and life more abundantly. He has promised to answer our prayers in ways that exceed our imagination. Whether in life nor in death, He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us, and that by Christ, He has forgiven our sin and made us to reign with Him.
God knows our hearts. He knows our struggles. He knows our shortcomings and failures. He is aware of that sinful lurch that still bobbles around in our mind, ceasing control of us at times, but He is also still present within us, kindly awaiting for us to humble ourselves and yield to His control.
These characteristics of God are rooted in Scripture, verified as truth, and validated by the Christian experience. If we allow our outlooks to dim and we forget any of these truths, we believe in a false God. YHWH becomes a god of our understanding, which is not the God of the Bible, neither is it the God who saved us in Christ. Christ is a God who is grasped, understood, and felt by the transformed heart that He died to save. Any understanding less than this, is an understanding darkened by sin, yet still the Holy Spirit kindly awaits in our being, ready to take over as we yield to His sovereignty.
If you find that your prayers are a bit out of joint (like mine usually are.) Take a moment to think about what type of faith is undergirding that prayer. What is it built upon? Is it built upon hope? Or is it built upon despair?
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 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. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” -Mark 11:20-25
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." -James 1:5-8
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