911 Do You Still Believe?

Have you ever specifically prayed for something, but it didn’t happen? What’s the deal? Did God not hear you? Did you not pray the right words or pray long enough? Was there some past sin blocking you from your answered prayer? It’s happened to all of us. We feel our prayer wasn’t heard, and it certainly wasn’t answered. As a result, we’ve lost faith that God will really answer our prayers. A doubt has grown within us, questioning if he really does what he said he would do. And if he does, why hasn’t he done it for you? Maybe you’ve been so disappointed by past prayers that went seemingly unanswered, that deep down you’ve stopped believing God is even remotely going to answer your current prayers. Oh, you still go through the motions and you pray, but it’s more like an insurance policy for when it all goes wrong so that you feel the fault isn’t yours … hey you prayed about it. This is on God. I felt an absolute conviction within my spirit as I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 21: 22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Have I stopped believing? Have you? Has your disappointment and discouragement over unchanging circumstances hardened your spirit to the point of no longer really believing God is going to respond to your requests? Have you lost hope here? Is your prayer kindof like the Hail Mary pass at the end of the game? You have nothing to lose, so you just throw it out there and see what happens? Then you’re not at all surprised when God doesn’t answer because it was a really long shot anyway. Dang, you’re no longer surprised when God doesn’t answer. You’re no longer disappointed by a prayer that doesn’t seem to be heard, because you already prepared yourself for the lack of change in circumstances, and more of just the same. So, let’s get to the heart of this … are you really BELIEVING when you pray, or are you praying out of obligation because it’s what you think you’re supposed to do? Are you just checking boxes, or are you tapping into the power of the Almighty? When you flip a light switch in your house, you expect the lights to come on, right? And if the lights don’t come on, you’re shocked. You know there’s a problem. What’s the problem? There’s a disconnect in the power somewhere. Something is turned off. Have you ever been in a power outage, and out of habit you still walk in the room and flip the switch? You feel so stupid, but it’s just habit. You’re walking into the garage to get the flashlight and you try to turn on the garage lights to find it. Okay, that’s WHY you are looking for your flashlight, because the power is out. Is the power out on your prayers? What’s the power? Well, what did Jesus say? If you pray this 12 sentence prayer? If you pray everyday for 2 hours straight? If you pray loud where everyone can here you? If you pray with fancy $5 words? If you have 1,200 of your Facebook friends pray with you? If you pray without a single wandering thought or distraction. Ohhhh, that’s the one that knocks me out of the running. I always get distracted when I pray. I fall asleep as I’m praying at night. Maybe that’s the disconnect in power for me. No … it’s none of that. Jesus simply said “if you BELIEVE, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Your belief in the power of God is the power. When you stopped believing God would really respond, you cut the line. Are you praying because it MIGHT work, or because you KNOW IT WILL WORK? We have such a disdain for disappointment, that we insulate ourselves from really believing God will respond to our requests to protect ourselves from the blow when it doesn’t happen. And this isn’t faith.