Mark 11:24 -Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
What better way to start a new month of devotions on the topic of prayer than with a verse that focuses on trusting that God hears us and answers? We also are beginning with a very challenging verse, one that can be hard to understand and has led to many different views of interpreting it. While I don’t claim to know the answer or even have the “correct” answer, I do encourage everyone to deep dive into the Word to see what God reveals to you.
This verse has actually caused people I know to question if their faith was strong since their prayers went unanswered. But No is still an answer, whether it is the one we expected or not. I can’t begin to say how glad I am that many of my prayers were big no’s from God. It wasn’t due to a lack of faith that resulted in not getting what I prayed for, but it not being God’s will. Jesus begged God to take the cup from Him when praying in Gethsemane and we didn’t see that prayer answered. Paul suffered a thorn in the flash that he begged to have removed and it never was. It wasn’t because of a lack of faith.
Faith is a good thing, a necessary thing to have when praying. We see other Scriptures tell us to ask in faith without doubting ( James 1:6), to have faith like a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), amongst others. We need to ask in faith because why would we be asking otherwise? We have to believe that what we are asking will be answered or else asking would be a waste of time since we don’t expect it to work out.
Faith is about trust. We trust that God is there. We trust He hears. We trust He has a plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11). We trust He is faithful and will answer our prayers. We HOPE He answers the way we want. To trust He will answer in our favor assumes we know better than God and have a plan already worked out for ourselves.
So let’s start this month off trusting that God hears our prayers, answers them (no is as much of an answer as not yet or not now), and wants what is best for us.
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