“Go; let it be done for you as you have believed” (Matthew 8:13). “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well” (Matthew 9:22). “According to your faith be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29).
I am reading through the Bible in a year, and got to read these passages earlier this week. In reading these verses from Matthew, I was convicted of how much faith I have, and what that faith should be in. I have been trying to apply these verses to my prayer life in particular. Scripture tells us that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name, He will do (John 14:13); but that in NO way means that He is obligated to us. It simply means that whatever we ask that is in agreement with His will, He will do. He knows what is good, what is just, and He will bring it to pass. We are stuck living in sin, so we cannot always do what is good. It’s frustrating, but true.
In trying to apply this to my prayer life, I first had to answer one essential question: was I supposed to have faith that God would answer me, or have faith that he was able to answer me? Upon further examination of Scripture, it has become abundantly clear that I must believe and have full assurance of God’s ability to answer my prayers; He is all-powerful, and can do anything! His arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1), and He delights in us because we are his children (Zephaniah 3:17, 1 John 3:1). However, He is not obligated to answer me. He is God; I am merely His creation (Ecclesiastes 5:2). He is in NO way obligated to do anything for me! And that is such good news. Seriously you guys- if God had given me everything that I asked for in my prayers, I wouldn’t have had to rely on Him nearly as much, and I wouldn’t have learned much about Him. I would have only treated Him like my own personal cosmic vending machine. I wouldn’t have gotten to develop a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe.
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