Week 7: Grandparents Model Faith In Action, Lesson 1, Week 7: By Expecting God’s Answer
Scripture for the week:
Therefore I tell you, whatever
you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24 NIV
Now faith is being sure of
what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NIV
In the same way, faith by
itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17 NIV
Know therefore that the LORD
your God is God’ he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a
thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV
Lesson 1, Week
7: By Expecting God’s Answer
Today’s Scripture Focus: Therefore
I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it,
and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 NIV
*Before you begin, ask the Holy
Spirit to teach you as you read God’s Word and seek His meaning.
Today’s verse can be confusing and easily
misunderstood. Are we to take it
literally? May we have whatever we ask
for in prayer, if we only believe enough?
Is this why some people unconsciously view God as a vending machine God,
then get mad when a non-selected treat appears? Do we just ask in prayer and presto, we get
anything we want?
What about the times when life
has seemed to contradict this verse?
Some of us have prayed for a physical healing for our child, grandchild,
or other family member, and didn’t receive what we asked for—was the problem a
lack of faith on our part? Oh, the guilt
that wrapped its binding tentacles around our hearts in those incidents and
made us assume that our faith was lacking.
Think On
These Things:
What was Jesus really trying to
tell us in this verse? The keyword is believe,
but not the way we may interpret it at first consideration. Instead, think of believe as being one
endless action of faith—believing that something is even though we can’t see
it—believing day after day, week after week, year after year until God’s answer
comes to pass. We are to ask, expecting
God to reply. But when you ask him,
be sure that you really expect him
to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that
is driven and tossed by the wind. James 1:6 TLB
In Chapter 10 of Daniel, we find
that Daniel has been in prayer to God over some great burdens. One day he has a vision in which he receives
a visitor, “I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with
a belt of the finest gold around his waist.
His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like
flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his
voice like the sound of a multitude,” Daniel 10: 5-6 NIV.Biblical scholars are pretty much
in agreement that the man was an angel sent to deliver a message to Daniel, but
they speculate on whether the angel was Gabriel, who is a messenger angel, or
God Himself.
But it is the message that I want
to call your attention to. “Do not be
afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that
you (prayed) set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself
before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them
(God took action in Heaven).” Daniel 10: 12 NIV,“But the prince of the Persian
kingdom resisted me twenty-one days (a prince of Satan’s). Then Michael, one of the chief princes (God’s
angel), came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia 10:13 NIV (Italics, mine)
Based on this passage, we can be
certain that God hears our prayers when we first pray them and responds to them
with action in Heaven. The Heavenly
action will eventually be carried out on earth, for God’s will prevails. This passage is a clear indicator that
prayers are answered in heaven before they ever become fact on earth. Our God is the Victor, for Jesus defeated
Satan at the Cross.
Looking back at our verse for
today, if we continue to believe that God hears us when we pray and that He
takes action on our requests, then we definitely know we will have His
answer.
Often, the way He answers may
seem very different from what we were asking for. That difference is what causes us to assume
our faith was lacking, or we would have gotten exactly what we asked for, but
that is not so. Jesus says that our
Father knows how to give us good gifts (Matthew 7:11 ). We are also
told that Jesus is our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:11 ), He intercedes for us before the throne of
God, and we have the Holy Spirit within us who prays for us (Romans 8:26 -27). We can rest assured that God is a loving
Father, who has our best interest at heart.
Thus, if the answer doesn’t seem to be
the answer we were seeking, we
need to trust the Father and know that He has provided the best possible answer
for He, and He alone, sees the whole mural of life on earth. In 2 Samuel 13: 15-23 we have the
story of the death of David and Bathsheba first child. David pleads with the Lord for the life of
the child, but the child dies. The
Scriptures tell us that God loved David, so why didn’t He grant him the exact
answer to his request?
God in His wisdom saw the whole
picture of David’s life and the lives of the others involved. Only God knows the exact reason He chose to
take the child to be with Him. Some may
speculate that it was punishment, but perhaps it might have been because the
child would have been a constant reminder of David’s sin. Perhaps it would have kept him from ever
forgiving himself and moving on with life.
This much we do know, God is Wisdom, and He always does the right
thing--the best thing for His children.
In addition to believing, John
15: 7 NIV points out some possible conditions for receiving our heart’s
desires. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be given you. To remain means to continue being a vital
member of the family. We must remain in
the family by being in daily contact through the Word and through prayer.
1 John 3:21-23 NIV adds, Dear
friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and
receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what
pleases him. And this is his
command: to believe in the name of his
Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Thus, believing, abiding, and obeying, twine together
up the trellis of our ascending prayers, causing God to move on our
behalf.
Does this mean that God never answers the prayers of a
non-Christian, for after all they are not abiding or obeying? No, for when a nonbeliever cries out to the
Lord, He becomes a seeker and God answers him.
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in
truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and
saves them. Psalm 145:18-19 NIV
Jeremiah 29: 13 and 14 NIV also confirms that God
answers the seeker. “You will seek me
and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD. “Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12 NIV
What Did I Learn
The word believe suggests a child of God needs
to have a continuous __________ of ________________.
We also need to pray_____________God to answer.
The passage in Daniel 10 tells us that God _______
___________ in Heaven when Daniel first
prayed.
Sometimes the answer to prayers may be delayed by
______________ __________________.
Our Heavenly Father knows how to give ___________
__________ to His children.
______ __________ ___________ and Jesus, as our __________
__________ _____________ intercede for us.
Besides believing and expecting, ___________ and
________________ are two important conditions to having our prayers answered.
God always answers prayer, but if He doesn’t answer us
exactly like we asked, it doesn’t mean we
were lacking in_______________. It simply means that God _____________the best possible
answer.
When a non-Christian seeks (cries out to) God, God
will _________for they have become seekers, and God is ________to all who
_____________on Him.
I Will Apply What I Have Learned
STEP 1: I will
pray, believing and expecting God to answer my petitions.
STEP 2: I will
choose to keep on believing even when the waiting is long, for I know that my prayers
have already been answered in Heaven and will come to pass on earth.
STEP 3: I will keep a prayer journal and share God’s
answers with my children and grandchildren.
Gracious
Father,
Thank You for making the gift of prayer
possible. Thank You for Your Word that
teaches us about prayer. Thank You for
hearing us and answering our prayers.
Thank You for the Holy Spirit who prays within us, and for Jesus, our
High Priest, who intercedes for us before Your throne. How blessed we are, Father.
We ask that You continue to hear our
prayers and enable us to ask believing and expecting You to answer our
prayers. May we practicing a continuous
action of faith, abiding with You and obeying Your commands. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen
Comments