Praying in faith

Mary Slessor who worked for the Lord in Africa was once asked what prayer meant to her. She answered: “My life is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvellously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer. I know God answers prayer.” 

The Lord does not only want us to pray but also to do so in faith! We should ask in the expectation that God will or has already answered our prayer. That is why Jesus said to His disciples: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). 

Our Lord and Master has set us an example: He had the certainty here on earth that His prayers would always be answered. That’s why He said in public to His Father at the tomb of Lazarus: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41-42). In addition, Psalm 16 shows us prophetically the trust with which He prayed. 

LB Cowman very fittingly said: “Our too general neglect of looking for answers to what we ask, shows how little we are in earnest in our petitions. A husbandman is not content without the harvest; a marksman will observe whether the ball hits the target; a physician watches the effect of the medicine which he gives; and shall the Christian be careless about the effect of his labour? 

Every prayer of the Christian, made in faith, according to the will of God, for which God has promised, offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the influence of the Spirit, whether for temporal or for spiritual blessings, is, or will be, fully answered.” (Streams in the Desert Devotional, LB Cowman). 

When you pray, do not focus on the mountain to be moved, but on God who can move it. (unknown) 

Sometimes God gives us the assurance on our knees that He has answered a prayer or prolonged supplication. This is a wonderful experience James Fraser was also allowed to have: 

For several years he prayed that hundreds of Lisu families (mountain people in what is now China) would get converted. At some point he got the impression that the Lord said to him, ‘You have prayed long enough. When are you willing to believe that your prayer is answered?’

How can you be sure that a prayer has been answered even though you don’t see the answer at that moment? What can help you to pray more in accordance with God’s will? What can hinder your trust that God will actually answer your prayer for a certain matter? 

J.P.S.