I was on YouTube this morning, looking for a clip to use for "Praying for Revival." I did find some, but what is more troubling is that I also found videos in which Christian ministers were either discouraging us from praying for revival or parsing words in such a way that would cast doubt on your prayers.
"Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him." -Jesus in Mark 11:23This is not the only place in the New Testament in which faith is depicted as powerful and doubt is the undoer of that power.
"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" James 1:6-8So, if we can be kept on fence, so to speak, on whether or not it is worth the time and effort to pray, then whatever we do pray will be a waste of time. Meanwhile, Jesus has told us that tossing a mountain into the sea is available to us if could adequately believe such a thing. I believe that Jesus used such an outlandish example to make a point, not to encourage large scale topographical arrangements. And the point is this: nothing is really impossible to you if you can believe it!
So, when you are praying something easy to believe: that God wants people saved, healed, delivered from addictions, and forsaking their sin; and some self-appointed Bible scholar comes to tell you that you are praying wrong or at the wrong time, etc., tune him out! And then pray for him, because such a person needs to be delivered from some spiritual ailment that has caused him to sell God short.
Father, open our eyes and help us to understand what you have given us that we might use it for your glory and your purposes, in Jesus' name.
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