THE POWER OF FAITHFUL PRAYER AND THE WILL OF GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Matthew 21:18-22

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus and His disciples were on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem when they came upon a fig tree that was covered in leaves but with no fruit on it. You’ll remember that Jesus gave the following command to the tree - “May you never bear fruit again!” - and the tree immediately withered, in plain sight of His followers who were amazed by what they had witnesses and asked their Leader”

“How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

To which Jesus replied:

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

These powerful words of Jesus form the core of this devotion as they convey an important message to all believers regarding the matter of faith, and when coupled with other scriptures, the importance of the will of God as it connects to faith.

Note first that Jesus connects the presence of faith with the absence of doubt. This is because it’s absolutely critical that they be paired together.

Need an example? You may remember this scene from earlier in Jesus’ ministry:

Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him.

Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!”  Matthew 8:23-27

Jesus was in the boat with His disciples. They had seen the power He possessed. And yet, when the storm came upon the boat, the faith of the disciples surrendered to doubt that they would survive, so much so that they woke Jesus who scolded them before rebuking the winds and the waves, bringing calm to everything.

Angered at their actions, what did Jesus say to His chosen followers?

“You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”

The disciples had failed an important faith test, all because they allowed their doubt to override their faith.

Need another example? Look another event that happened at sea.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”

“Come,” He said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.  Matthew 14:35-32

Peter had great faith when he stepped out of the boat onto the water and probably would have made it all the way to Jesus if he hadn’t started to allow doubt to creep in. As soon as that happened, he began to sink and cried out to Jesus to save Him. After that happened, what did Jesus say to His disciple?

“You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

Can you see how the scriptures teach us that we can’t hope to have faith when we allow doubt to coexist with it?

They don’t go together.

So what happens when we get our doubt under wraps and keep it from impacting our faith?

Going back to our passage, Jesus tells us.

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

In other words, a person of faith who pushes doubt aside, believing and trusting that the Lord can do all things, will find themselves receiving what they pray for, no matter how difficult the situation might be, even if your difficulties seem as immovable as a mountain. Always remember that all things are possible through the Lord.

With all this, I need to address the final words that Jesus speaks because the matter of getting what you ask for in prayer requires in examining the word of God in whole rather in part. You see, the words of Jesus taken on their own merit and not informed by God’s word elsewhere might leave the impression that we serve a “fast food” kind of Lord who fills our prayer orders exactly as we demand and gives us what we ask for, just the way we want.

That’s obviously not how it works if you think about it for a moment. What if someone asked for something that might actually bring harm to them or others? Of if the request led to sinful, wicked behavior?

Obviously, the Lord is not going to provide for anything that would support transgressive behavior.

So how does it really work? How can we be assured that when we pray in faith, suppressing doubt, we will receive what we are asking for?

To find the answers, we need to look at these words from 1 John 5 that brings this matter of praying and receiving into the proper focus:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14-15

Now we gain clarity on the matter of prayer and receiving from God, clarity that allows us to approach God in confidence.

First, we should be praying for the Lord’s will for our lives. This can be very specific to a situation or a broad brush approach to life in general. No matter the scope, the first step is to seek God’s will first.

To reinforce this, remember the prayer Jesus taught all His believers to pray, a prayer widely referred to as the Lord’s Prayer. You’ll remember He taught us to pray this:

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

In other words, we were taught by Jesus to pray for the Lord’s will to be done. It needs to be a first and fundamental part of our prayer life so we make sure that whatever we ask for is something the Lord wants for us.

Once we have done that, we can be assured that what we ask for in accordance with the Lord’s will is going to be given to us. We will have what we have asked of Him.

Through the words of scripture today, we receive critical knowledge regarding the power found in faithful prayer when it is partnered with the will of God. My prayer is that you’ll follow this process as you come before the Lord with your needs, needs He is ready to help you with but on His timeline which we can be sure is always perfect for He is perfect.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com