The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Pray In Faith
Have you ever prayed for something over and over again and it doesn’t seem that God is doing anything about it? Many times we pray repeatedly over a long period of time before we recognize that God has, indeed, answered our prayers.
In George Müller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1999, pp. 302-303) Arthur Pierson talks about George Müller’s ongoing prayers for the salvation of two men, as well as his praise in advance for the answers he felt assured would come. George Müller is generally regarded as the most devout model of faith and prayer in action of anyone in the past two centuries. And yet, after 60 years of prayer for one man’s salvation, the answer didn’t happen until shortly before Müller died. The other man for whom he had prayed for 60 years came to know the Lord as his Savior sometime after Müller’s death, and had “given most unequivocal testimony to his faith and hope in the Savior of sinners.” What would have happened if he had given into a spiritual shortcut that comes from lack of both faith and patience, and stopped praying?
We are not given to know if the outcome would have been different in that case. But we do know that the authentication of our faith in God is not in the demonstration of how fast or how often God answers our prayers. It is in how faithful we are to continue praying and serving God in the face of humanly insurmountable circumstances and seemingly incomprehensible delays. We can only do that by faith in the promises of God found throughout the Bible.
At other times His answers are immediate. A Biblical example is given to us in James 5:17-18. “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Luke 18:1 tells us “And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” The parable tells of a widow seeking justice from an unjust judge. He grants it only because she is the proverbial squeaky wheel hounding him to avenge her. Jesus makes the connection to the prayers of His own people in verses seven and eight. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.”
Matthew 6:7 warns us, “when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. To pray in faith for a long time does not involve meaningless chanting of the same words over and over again, however. It is a loving, private conversation with our Beloved in which we talk to Him freely knowing He is there beside us. He is our most intimate friend and so our dialogue with Him is both intelligent and honest. James 5:16 gives further direction for prayer. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
Jesus gives clear confirmation of His intent to answer the prayer made in faith in Mark 11:22-24. “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 says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, [Whatever] things…you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Finally, God uses unexpected ways to answer our prayers. When we pray in faith, we should not be surprised that or how God answers. When you pray for the restoration of a marriage, for instance, be prepared to see increased trials in the couple’s life. More than once I have seen serious health, trauma, and financial issues bring a family back together in ways that nothing else could. Isaiah 55:8-9 clearly states that “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
