Effective Prayer

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed to God for this or that and somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind, I doubted whatever I was praying for was even possible. Yup - I’ve been, and am confident that I will continue to be from time to time, that insulting to God. This thought had me up the other night, thinking about why I would ever even kneel down with my doubts to pray, given Jesus’ own words, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26b). This is the same man who said that true faith could move a mountain.Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”This passage has given me fits in the past, but as I’ve grown spiritually, I’ve learned the deeper, more practical aspect of it. That is to say when taken at face value, it’s a wonder the world’s mountain ranges aren’t being shuffled across our landscapes daily, if for no other reason than for the joy of seeing God’s omnipotence on full display. However, here’s the catch. In v22, Jesus said, “all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” The Greek word for “believing” is from the same root word as that which is translated “faith” in English. Well, suffice to say that faith is a grace gift from God. Oh, we can have human faith, but that will never move mountains - we might just as well go down to the hardware store, grab a pickaxe and start chopping at the base of the mountain!When Jesus made the statement that faith can move mountains, He wasn’t lying. If God happened to will it so, guess what…the mountains would move at your command! But again, here’s the catch - God doesn’t will such things, therefore, said faith to actually do so is never granted. With reference to v22, we are never given the actual belief that some prayer of ours will move a mountain. That kind of belief is a gift, remember, not a function of the will of man. In other words, it’s literally impossible for us to believe that our prayers can move mountains if we don’t actually possess the God-given faith to do so. And since that kind of faith is a supernatural gift, without it, we will doubt our own prayers.Now, this “mountain” will most likely be something much more relevant to our lives. For some of us, it’s an addiction, for others, an illness. We all have things in our lives that we perceive as obstacles - things that would apparently make our lives a lot easier to navigate if they were no longer present. Most of us have prayed to have said “mountains” removed, and in our own sphere of weakness, have doubted God would comply. Frankly, it’s appropriate to doubt in this case, righteous even, because we are praying for things we don’t actually believe will happen. Why? Because God hasn’t given us the supernatural gift of faith on the subject. He doesn’t desire for us to believe it. He’s got other plans. He wants us to scale the “mountain”, not avoid it. It may be an arduous task, but by grace through faith, He’ll ensure you believe it’s possible.Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.Here’s what we need to really focus on when our prayers go seemingly unanswered. Doubt is not from God. If it were, we wouldn’t be able to trust Him regarding anything, including our salvation! Doubt is a human condition.Pure faith cannot doubt. It’s an impossibility. Let that sink in.To net this out in a more practical way, consider that God never fails. His will be done, right? OK, then, if God gives a person true faith, implying the ability to believe something is truly oriented with His will, then if/when that person exercises that faith through prayer, the objective will always be met. Since God is omnipotent, said objective is irrelevant, regardless of how massive it may seem to mere man (e.g., moving mountains). If God can create and orchestrate the Universe, then moving a mountain isn’t really a big deal.It turns out that we pray all the time for things without this perspective in mind. We pray, knowing deep down that our will is disoriented with God’s. Therefore, we doubt while doing so. We may not call it “doubting”, but that’s what the Bible calls it. Praying without true faith is the same thing as doubting, even if it’s wrapped in the most earnest request. It’s impossible for us to believe in a prayer if God hasn’t willed the content of it.In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.God is intrinsically and wholly good. Dwell on that.Romans 8:28 states that God will work all things together for good. The only way man can do anything in the sphere of His perfect goodness is if He enables him. “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). If God so desired, then He’d give you the faith to move whatever “mountain” exists in your life. I have to believe that most of us require more divine perspective than what we allow Him to impart to us in a lifetime; this long before we are even candidates for such faith, lest we attribute its results to our own will. I also must believe that in our own natural disorientation towards God’s will, we misinterpret the “mountains” in our lives as obstacles rather than gifts in and of themselves, being placed by God in our paths to strengthen us.When all is said and done, I believe this is our problem - we lack faith because we lack the humility to receive it (James 4:6). And since we never receive it, at least the kind that can move “mountains” in our lives, our prayers, while always heard, are disoriented with God’s will and therefore impaired. If we want our prayers to be effective, we must believe in them the way Jesus taught. True faith, and its sibling belief, is a grace gift from God and never given in contradiction to His own will. When our faith and His will become symbiotic, anything is possible - truly.The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Ed Collins