Do You Really Believe?

There seems to be so much going on in the world today. I mean there is so much turmoil in the news on a daily basis. But are you praying? More importantly, do you believe that God will answer the prayers that you are sending up? I know that we've heard it plenty of times...but we are indeed living in the last & evil days. Children are turning against their parents, and vice versa. Sexual abomination is covered in the news and has made its way into the churches, but more disturbing than that we are living in the midst of an uproar and it appears that we (the church) are silent. Now, I'm not saying that you need to be running around like John the Baptist, screaming out and telling everyone to repent (unless God instructs you to do so). But if you're not openly sharing the good news with others, or walking this thing out  then we should be praying. During Bible study this past week we were discussing walking in authority and it was mentioned more than once that, "silence is compliance." Even if we are not led to say anything verbally we can still send up a prayer, even silently and you are not being compliant. But we must believe in God, that He will answer that prayer.

So many of us Christians claim that we have faith, but we send up prayers that we don't even believe in. When you look at all the people that Jesus healed in the Gospels the key to their healing was their belief. One case is found in Matthew 8:5-13, the passage is called "The Faith of a Roman Officer" in some versions, in my bible (Life Application Study Bible, NLT) it is called "A Roman Officer Demonstrates Faith."Here we are able to see just how powerful our faith has the potential to be. Now, in the case of the Roman officer he came to Jesus pleading on the behalf of one of his servants who had fallen ill. And even though Jesus said, "I will come and heal him" (Matthew 8:7b, NLT) the Roman officer said no. He felt unworthy to have Jesus come into his home...but he didn't leave it at that. He said, "Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed" (Matthew 8:8). Because he believed in Jesus his servant was healed that same hour (verse 13).

Unfortunately, a lot of us are like the opposite of the Roman officer. Instead of understanding and believing that God can speak a word from where He is, and the situation will be changed we are too busy waiting for Him to come to where we are whether it be at home, or on the job and perform a miracle. Then when God does answer us, or acts on our behalf and He comes in a completely different way than we expected we have the nerve to be upset with Him. But if we really believed in God like we say we do then we would know that He is more than capable of answering our prayers.

I worry that we have begun to utter prayers out of habit, instead of with expectancy. When you expect God to do something then you actually believe in Him. If we really believed like we say we do, then we would be able to speak the word in any situation. Instead of presenting God a laundry list prayer, then our prayers would be filled with His word. We would recognize that what He speaks won't return to Him void, but accomplish everything that He sent it out to do (Isaiah 55:11).

The key to answered prayers is faith! Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see" (NLT). The note in my bible says this: "The beginning point of faith is believing in God's character: He is who he says. The end point is believing in God's promises: He will do what he says. When we believe that God will fulfill his promises even though we don't see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true faith (John 20:24-31)" [Life Application Study Bible, NLT)]. So again, do you really believe?? Can you stand on God's word to be true? Then we must begin to walk as such. It's important that we believe in the power of God! Then we will be able to testify of His greatness to those that are unaware. And we will be able to take the world by storm. The church will not be overtaken by generational curses, illnesses, and poverty because not only will we speak the word over our lives but we will believe that it is true!

Be Encouraged,
God's Servant