Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus
In the previous session, we were learning on "HOW" we should pray. If we look back to Part 3, we learned on how to pray with Simplicity, Perseverance and to pray through Jesus' death and in His Name. Today, let us understand on How we should pray with Faith.
HOW? With FAITH
"Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith" (Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24) we can say that Jesus wants us to pray with faith. Some have taken verses and like this and turned them into the power of positive thinking. They believe that if we can be confident that something will happen, it will indeed happen. But that would be faith in our faith. When Jesus teaches us how to "move mountains" by faith, He says explicitly, "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). There seem to be times when God makes clear to us that His will is to do a particular thing. In that case we may be perfectly confident that very thing will be done. In that sense Jesus says to us, "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24). It is God who does it, and our belief rests on Him and His revealed will. Otherwise, we would be God, and He would run the universe according to our will, not His.
Jesus makes it clear that there is a kind of filter that our prayers must pass through in order to be sure that they are according to God's will. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). Here Jesus' promise is more clearly qualified than in Mark 11:24. Are we trusting in Him as our all-supplying vine? And are His words shaping our minds and hearts so that we discern how to pray according to His wisdom?
Praying in faith does not always mean being sure that the very thing we ask will happen. But it does always mean that because of Jesus we trust God to hear us and help us in the way that seems best to Him. It may mean that He gives us just what we ask, or that He gives us something better. Will a father give a son a stone if he asks for bread? No. But neither will he give him bread if it is moldy. He may give him cake. Sometimes God's answers will overwhelm us with their excess. Other times they taste more like medicine than food and will test our faith that this medicine is really what we need.
HOW? Not for the Praise of Others
In view all that we learnt, it should be clear that the reward of prayer comes from God, not man. But Jesus shows us that the human heart is capable of turning the most beautifully Godward act in a manward direction and ruining it. He warns us:
When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Mark 6:5-6)
Jesus hates hypocrisy - like appearing to love God when what you really love is the praise of man. His most disparaging language was reserved for "hypocrites". He called them children of hell, "blind guides", "full of greed and self-indulgence", "whitewashed tombs" (Matt.23:15, 24, 25, 27). The demand is unmistakable: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1). The implication for prayer (ad fasting and alms-giving, Matt. 6:1-4, 16-18) is: Treasure God, and all that He will be for you, in prayer; but do not treasure the praise of man. And most of all do not turn a God-treasuring act of prayer into a man-treasuring act of hypocrisy.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we have now completed on the how we are to pray. Hope you all enjoyed reading and understanding Jesus' words on how to pray. In the next session, I would take up for whom to pray. May the Lord Almighty bless you and keep you in all your ways.
Your Brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin
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