Meditations

Prayer And Faith Go Hand In Hand

Why do we need Faith to pray?

If we are going to talk to God who is to us unseen, we must have an elementary faith that He is real, and in some way tuned into to our prayer, AND that He has the will and power to provide the answer to the prayer.

When you cannot prove something to be so, you must believe, or else your are just playing a game, something like little girls talking to their dolls.

When we pray, we project our faith on God. Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God.

Our faith is kept alive by prayer.

If we have faith in God's ability to do -- and to do greatly, then we will pray greatly. When the leper asked Jesus for healing, he said, "Lord, if You will to do it, You can make me clean!" Jesus responded, "Do you believe that I am able to do this? Then, according to your faith, be it done unto you!"

Faith Acts!
If you believe that someone is going to do something for sure, your actions acknowledge your belief.
A leper is told to go wash himself in the pool. He did and was healed. If he hadn't gone, do you think he would have been healed?
Peter was a professional fisherman. After a whole night of no catches, he knew that the fish were not going to be there, but because Jesus said to throw the net over, and he believed in Jesus, the net was filled to overflowing.
The women go to the grave to anoint Jesus even though a huge rock was over the entrance to the grave. Faith moved them to go, faith was rewarded, the stone had been moved.

Obedience helps faith -- and when we are used to faith being honored, faith helps us to be obedient.
True faith requires patience, and is prepared for what seems to be delays in God answering prayers, Faith takes God at His word, and lets Him choose the time for fulfilling the request. Faith accepts that there may be conditions to the fulfillment.

They wanted Jesus to hurry while Lazarus was still alive but very sick. In effect, they were praying that He would go heal him. His timing, four days after, and when the body stunk had far more glory for God than just running over there immediately and giving him a shot of penicillin.

Delay is the strengthener of faith. God may have many things to do before a final answer is given which are essential to the answer serving His best possible purpose.

Faith and prayer, and prayer and faith cover temporal or physical needs as well as spiritual needs. When your faith tells you that God will provide, it quiets all anxiety and needless care about what we will eat, drink and wear, and how we'll get to wherever we're supposed to be. In other words, Faith lives in the present, day by day.

Scripture says that tomorrow will bring its own needs and problems.

"Give us our daily bread" We are shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. If we spend time praying for tomorrow's needs, those prayers might not be necessary at all. The bread that we get today is the strongest pledge that the bread will be there tomorrow, too. In other areas, victory today as a result of right relationship with God in prayer, is the strongest pledge of victory tomorrow! In another sense, no amount of praying today will take care of tomorrow's need for praying. We cannot eat tomorrow's bread today, nor can do tomorrow's praying today.

Some Scriptures which apply to faith with prayer.

Therefore I say to you, whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them!

"Veri1y, Verily, I say to you, he that believes on Me, and the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 1f you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you.”