Since the last couple of blog entries regarding prayer and faith, some have posted their comments here. Others have sent me personal emails. I'm not hear to preach to anyone but myself. This blog has always been personal in nature--a place for me to type what I'm discovering in the Word and in my prayer time. If I'm learning something and, thus, writing it here helps you, that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you; not Barbie Bassett.
It's been said before, faith is not believing God can. Faith is believing God will. But the reason why so little is accomplished in our prayer life is because we expect so little. We believe God can, but we don't believe that God will. There is a big difference.
Matthew 9 talks of Jesus' healing of the blind and the mute men. Two blind men were calling out to Jesus for mercy. They wanted to see! Jesus asked them one question in verse 28, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" And they both said yes. Jesus told them, "According to your faith, will it be done to you."
But as Christians, we sometimes subscribe to the belief, "According to how much you want it, so be it." That's not what Jesus said. Notice it is according to how much we believe God will give it to us--that is faith. We cannot tell God what we want and then try to fit Him into our plans.
You never see miracles performed for people in the Bible who didn't have faith before they asked for healing. The faith they had in Jesus came before their miracle. The miracle was just a by-product of their faith.
Our prayers are the same way. Faith comes first, the answer comes second.
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When a boxer is badly beaten, knocked down by his opponent, and cannot get up, the referee counts to ten, and the fight is over. This is the idea behind the common expression we use for someone who appears to be defeated, when we say he is "down for the count."
The Bible, however, says that Christians - even when the powerful punches of life are landing relentlessly - are not "counted out." Instead, they are counted "up" (happy) if they endure. "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." (James 5:11)
"But wait," says the skeptic, "I thought Christians were supposed to claim their blessings by faith... Isn't suffering a sign of faithlessness for a believer?" Dear friend, be not deceived. Faith is not blindly grabbing for rewards. True faith is obeying the Lord in spite of consequences, and enduring - like Job did - by depending on His grace, His time, and His Word.
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