Believe It Or Not
Scripture: Mark 11:24
24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Doesn’t this scripture make it sound like answered prayer is a piece of cake?? It’s pretty straight forward – ask for it, believe for it, and you’ve got it. I can do the asking and the receiving just fine, it’s that middle step, the believing that trips me up.
This past week, I had a situation come up that caught me off guard. I felt like I was being manipulated and undermined at the same time. I called a prayer partner and asked for prayer, specifically that I would have wisdom in what to say and that I would handle the situation correctly. As a faithful prayer partner should, this individual reminded me that I needed to ‘Let go and let God!’. She reminded me that when we completely give it up, we are astonished at God’s perfect outcome.
That’s what that middle step, believing, is all about. I was crying out to God to move on my behalf, but then turning around and rehearsing in my head all the scenarios for how it could turn out. Friends, that’s not believing that God is going to take care of it. That’s believing He’s not capable and needs my help.
When we truly believe that He is going to move for us, we pray and then wait for the outcome. Every time the temptation comes to try to figure out the answer to the prayer, we need to resist that temptation and instead praise God that He is faithful and is working on it.
And, let me just tell you, from experience, it is much more peaceful to release it and let God take care of it. As we rehearse and meditate on the situation in our minds, it becomes bigger, more stressful, and more exaggerated. Before we know it, we are in a frenzy, which is not at all necessary. The God of the universe is willing and able to take care of it for us. The question is, will we let Him?
He gives us the formula:
Asking + Believing = Receiving
Remember, you’re believing that He will answer your cry for help, therefore you do not need to work out human solutions and possibilities. Joyce Meyer says it very well – ‘Worry is nothing more than worshipping our ability to solve the problem.’ We all meditate on something, it can be the problem at hand, or it can be praising God for taking care of the problem at hand.
We recently sang a song a church that says it so well. They lyrics are:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious
Oh for grace to trust Him more.
He’s a big God, and He is THE Good God! You can trust Him to work things out for the best. Won’t you let Him prove that to you?
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