It's Saturday morning and I awoke as my husband was leaving to go work at the church. They are working on the landscaping in the back. I reached over and grabbed my iPhone so I could read a few chapters of the new book I'm reading (The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel). The titles of the chapters all begin like this: When You Believe in God but.... But, the 3 little letters that completely discount each statement before it.
I was humored by a story that Craig told in Chapter 4: When You Believe In God but Not in Prayer. In this story a pastor asked his church to begin praying that God would shut down the neighborhood bar. They gathered for a prayer meeting and pleaded with God to close the bar. A few weeks later the bar was struck by lightening and it burned to the ground. The bar owner then sued the church. In court the bar owner argued that God struck his bar with lightning because of the church members' prayers. The pastor began to argue that yes, his church did pray but they didn't really expect anything to happen. The judge of course was perplexed, he stated: "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Right in front of me is a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and a pastor who doesn't."
This story hit me right in the heart. How many times have I prayed and not expected God to answer? How often have I said I believe You God, but...? How often have I said I would pray over something and then didn't because I really didn't think God would care? How often have I said with my actions, "I believe in God but not in Prayer"? Question after question kept running in my mind.
Of course I believe, don't I? YES!!! I do believe that God can and does answer prayer. I've seen many prayers answered. 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 instructs us to Never stop praying, Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. If you are a Born Again Christian, it doesn't matter what you are praying for, God hears your prayers and is ready to answer. Are you really believing he will answer? Are you not praying because your afraid He won't answer and /or you will be disappointed with the answer? Can you trust Him to answer according to His will? What would happen if we really believed in the Power of Prayer?
Lord, help us in our unbelief. We say we believe in you, yet our actions speak otherwise. Let us walk in your will continually seeking your guidance. Develop in us a heart to communicate with you. No matter how big or small, remind us that you want us to talk to you. Whether we talk to you in spoken word, written word, song or dance remind us that you hear us and that you love us. Put a burning desire in our hearts to come to you with our arms open, ready to give ourselves to you.
