This is the text for Pastor Jims devotional message on WATH - Wednesday 1-22-14: This week as we consider how to have an effective prayer life, we have touched on the importance of coming to God with a humble and contrite heart and to seek after Him in a wholehearted manner. Today we will consider the importance of coming to God in faith and that is, believing that God can do something and believing that He desires to do it. Of course if you don’t believe something is God’s will you have no reason to be praying for it in the first place. So it only makes sense to believe your request is within the will of God. Second to pray a prayer in faith means that you believe God is able to do that which you have asked Him to do. Here again, if you don’t believe God is able, then praying for Him to do something is s pointless. The verses from 1 John 5:14-15 reads, “And this is the confidence which we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him. This is a significant verse when it comes to understanding faith and how faith works in prayer. You might say, but the word faith is not in this verse. While that is true, synonyms for the word faith include confidence, trust, belief, reliance and assurance. So having confidence is something is having faith in it. What we have confidence in is that when we ask God to do something in line with His will, He hears our prayer. And God is an active hearer when it comes to prayers according to His will. By active hearer, I mean that if God hears, God moves. God doesn’t hear like me when my wife Vicki makes a request. Let’s say Vicki wants me to come in the kitchen and get a big heavy baking dish down from the top shelf of the cabinet and I happen to be in front of the TV watching the playoffs and I say okay, but I don’t move. That is not active hearing. God is an active hearer when something is requested that is already His will. You might ask: How do I know if something is God’s will. That takes a little work. You have to take the time to dig in and study the Word of God, the Bible, which is the will of God. For example: I would say that at least 75% of the prayer concerns that come my way are concerns about healing. So in order to pray a prayer of faith... pray with confidence, I have to know what the Bible says about healing. The same is true for you. It is okay to ask the pastor to pray about a situation, but it is even better for you to know what the Bible says so you can pray for yourself. Right now you may be thinking of a variety of excuses for why you can’t do that, but that’s all they are, excuses. Each Christian has a responsibility to study the Scriptures for him or her self. With all the information that is available on the internet, you can find in a matter of seconds, what used to take hours. Search for Bibles verses about faith and healing. Then study these verses so that you are convinced that they are true. And when the time comes for you to pray a prayer of faith about healing you will be able to do it. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t ask others to pray too, but John 5:14 says: This is the confidence that we have in Him. It says “we” not just John, but we. That “we” can include you in your prayer life. So let’s pray a prayer of faith: O Lord, I pray for those who desire to have confidence in your word to pray the prayer of faith. I ask with confidence that you give wisdom to those who ask you during this prayer because according to your word in James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayer. Amen. If you would like to read the transcript of this message go to the Canaanville or Stewart Facebook Pages. This is Pastor Jim Lambert. May God bless you as you seek to follow Him.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 05:11:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015