Prayer: Part I

I have been thinking a lot about prayer recently. One of my close friends and prayer partners and I recently started working through a book by Richard Foster called The Celebration of Discipline. His chapter on prayer struck me. He made reference to Christ’s teaching on prayer. The thing that stuck out most to me was from Mark 11 when Jesus told us to pray believing that we have what we ask for before we ask for it. Foster recommended a book by Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School Of Prayer. This book has also been very encouraging and thought provoking. One of Murray’s chapters focuses on Mark 11:22 where Jesus says, “Have faith in God.” Murray says that this statement to believe in God is crucial in preceding the command for faith in what we ask for. We must first believe in the giver before we have any reason to believe in the gift. This may be the heart of why Word of Faith folks are going too far with their “name it and claim it” approach. I think on the other hand we are going too far in reacting against their over reaction and being unfaithful in not believing he will answer our prayers. We do have the command to believe what we have asked for and it will be ours. The crucial aspect of this is having faith in God himself first. It becomes a God-centered prayer instead of a me-centered prayer. Murray makes a good point of faith being the means of a real relationship with God himself more than it is a means of getting the thing we ask for.
I am struck with this being very important in my support raising process in two ways. The first is that I need to be praying for God to provide and confidently trusting in Him to do it. This does not take away from the fact that I need to be doing the work that is in front of me but I need to do it trusting that God will answer my prayers. This thought is supported in reading through Joshua. The Ephraimites were complaining about the mountain land being difficult to clear and the valley people having iron chariots. Joshua’s response to them was that they will clear out the highlands and they will conquer the iron chariots. God had already promised them that he would give them this land but they still had to work for it. At the same time they had to trust and believe in God’s answer to his promise to do the work. The second way this is very important is to remember my need to be in communion with God. If I am focusing too much on seeking support and also seeking how to help others see Christ to the neglect of my dwelling in Christ then I will have nothing to offer. I am constantly being reminded of my need to be healed by Christ in order to be able to point anyone to the Christ who heals.