Matthew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

This is the kind of verse that gets some people excited and some people wanting to throw out the whole Bible. However, there are quite a few verses like that, so your approach to this verse will reflect your approach to God and the Bible. If you are man-centric, you will try to bring everything down to the level of your own experience. If You are willing to focus on God and become Christ-centric (God-centric), then you will seek to let Him bring you and your experience up to His level. The difficulty with this particular verse is that some people use it as a springboard for believing in faith, rather than actually believing in God. That quickly degenerates into a kind of magic, where faith is seen as a tool for manipulating people and events rather than as getting in line with God who created it all. Here, Jesus had just used the fig tree as a tool to expand the disciples’ minds to see that indeed, nothing is impossible for God. However, that needs to be balanced with an awareness that Jesus didn’t “pray away” any of the suffering He endured before and during His crucifixion, and there was certainly nothing deficient about His faith! Likewise, when Paul prayed earnestly three times for healing of a particular physical problem, the answer he got from God was, “My grace is all you need.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) As we pray in faith, it must always be as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

My problem here, as I think it is for many sincere Christians, is praying with full assurance. I’ve seen some genuine miracles in answer to prayer, my own and others’, but I’ve seen far more presumptuous prayer that didn’t get the desired result. There is a fine line between faith and presumption, and I don’t always come down on the correct side of that. I need God to show me more and more how to get in line with Him and let His Spirit pray through me, because there is literally no limit to what can happen then. When I trust Him enough to let His words come from my mouth, nothing can stand in His way.

Father, thank You for how You are indeed continuing to grow and train me. Thank You for how You have been carrying me through this week, and that You will continue to do so. It has really been an intensive time of prayer, and that is always good. Thank You that the wake last night went as You desired, giving comfort and closure to the bereaved. Thank You that You will do the same this morning in the funeral and cremation. Thank You for the training this is for the two who are answering Your call to ministry, including the son of the man we are commemorating. I pray that I would be an open channel for Your Spirit throughout today, so that people may be brought to repentance and faith, as well as the bereaved being given comfort and closure, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!