For message this morning or afternoon now, I turn to Mark 11, verses 22-24.
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you’ve received it and it will be yours.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, you’ve given us your word, your special revelation of yourself. You have given it to us to teach us, but also you have given it to us to comfort us so that we might hear you speak in times that we do not see the light shining. Open our hearts, open our ears, and open our eyes to receive your illumination, your comfort, and to know your love for your people. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer is easily the most important activity that every Christian can engage in. It is even more important than personal evangelism. Although it seems like prayer should also be the easiest activity for a Christian, we often find that it is actually the hardest, most difficult, and most challenging thing for us to do. Even at the best of times, it is the most difficult thing for us to remain consistent about in our walk of faith. But it is the most rewarding thing when we are consistent.
I have not gotten to know Miss Nancy and her husband Sid as well as many and most of you, but I have learned by listening and watching that they are both people of tremendous faith and that they have been devoted to prayer. I also know that they were the recipients and beneficiaries of other people’s prayers and petitions, my own included. I can see that they love Jesus Christ. I know that they are loved by Jesus. I know that they are loved by those who love and are also loved by Jesus.
I want to encourage them and all of us to know and remember that the prayer which is prayed through earnest faith in Christ does not, will not, and cannot fail. However, it may not, and usually will not, be answered in the way that we expect or hope. Our Christian theology of prayer may seem confusing at times because of passages that seem to overpromise and underdeliver, such as these verses from Mark or similar ones as in John’s gospel: “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
But when Mark here quotes Jesus as saying, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours,” if taken at face value, it lends itself as a key proof text for the abuses of the name-it-and-claim-it Prosperity Gospel. When prayer does not seem to work the way that we would like, those who hold to that kind of perspective will answer those who ask, “Why did God not answer my prayer?” by saying, “Because you lacked faith,” or “Because you did not believe hard enough,” which is entirely unhelpful and unbiblical.
That attitude towards prayer only leads to despair and misery because it either calls God a liar, saying that Scripture is wrong, or it raises the expectations of our faith far beyond our capabilities. Yet the question remains and demands an answer: Why did God not answer my prayer? To which Scripture answers: He did, just not in the way that you expected him to.
When we consider the recorded prayers of Jesus, we find a response to prayer that seems to excuse everything yet explain nothing. When Jesus was praying in the garden before his passion, he prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Here we find the answer to every prayer rests in God’s hands alone, subject to his sovereign will.
Perhaps we might find some cold comfort recognizing that God even told Jesus no, that God the Father answered God the Son’s earnest prayer that he prayed in faith with a negative. Then, whenever we pray in Jesus’ name, we understand that we are praying as if we are Jesus praying, and that we’re praying for whatever he would be praying for. This gives us the faith and confidence to know that our heavenly Father will answer us just as if we are his beloved only begotten Son, Jesus.
But asking in Jesus’ name does not guarantee us to get the answer which we think we want. Yet we are certain that God will give us the answer we need. God always answers prayer, always. But sadly, our first feeling is thinking that God answered us with no, because he answered us this way due to some deficiency within our faith.
We especially fall into thinking this whenever our prayers are petitions of healing—for miraculous, spontaneous, supernatural healing. We pray, ask, hope for healing just as the bleeding woman did or like blind Bartimaeus or the ten lepers, all of whom heard Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well.” It’s no wonder then that when we’re hoping for miraculous healing that we will begin to doubt the strength of our faith when the healing we hope for does not appear.
Perhaps we’re tempted in sadness and with resignation to respond to God’s assumed no with a begrudging, “Thy will be done.” Perhaps we’re tempted to become bitter and angry against God for not giving us what we wanted, how we wanted it, and when we wanted it. However, I suggest that this is precisely the moment when we should respond to God with praise, thanking him by joyfully saying, “Thy will be done! Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen!”
Because when someone is a Christian, when someone believes God and trusts in Jesus, their hope is actually in a far greater answer to our prayers. The problem is in our difficulty to recognize how God has actually said yes. The sinfulness within our flesh allows Satan to strike at us in these moments of weakness, trying to turn us away from the Lord. Satan wants us to keep our eyes downcast; he does not want us looking upward towards our Savior and seeing the truth of his good blessings and his positive answer to our prayer.
But we must still believe in God’s yes, continuing to search until we finally see it. It’s difficult for us to see it at first because we are not God, and his ways are not our ways. It’s difficult for us to see it because when we ask for something that is too great, challenging, or difficult for us to do, such as healing the human body, what we pray for is far less than what Jesus is prepared to give us.
It is difficult to see it because we also look for his answer in the wrong places. God will surely answer us far better and with far more than we have asked him to, but we must raise our eyes up even higher. We must increase our expectations for God because he is infinitely greater, higher, more powerful, and more gracious than we can comprehend.
We ask for much less than he wants to give us. Our imaginings and hopes are limited by our humanity and by the ordinary expectations of the world. But when we’re in crisis, experiencing dire need and struggling against worldly hopelessness, we find it easy to turn to God in prayer and ask him for what is impossible with man, especially healing. However, then when what we thought was impossible happens and someone is physically healed by the medical care of doctors, nurses, and all the power of science, we are quick to praise these men and women for all that they’ve done, forgetting about God’s sovereign hand behind all of it.
We praise the surgeon’s skill or the wisdom of the pharmacist, forgetting that all of their ability and understanding comes from the Lord above. We forget that the Lord is the first cause of all things and truly the ultimate source of healing. Yet then when the impossible does not happen, and someone is not physically healed, when they do not recover or are not restored as we prayed for, we become quick to blame God for not answering our prayer.
We become bitter or angry, and we find no comfort in “thy will be done” because we forget that physical healing and earthly restoration is not God’s ultimate plan or will for any of our lives. Instead, our true healing is expected for the life in the world to come. But still, it is good and right for Christians to ask God for healing in this life.
When the prayed-for healing does not happen and those we love reach the end of their time on earth, we do not need to despair. Instead, we rejoice and celebrate for them, believing that now they are truly and completely healed in every way. Sometimes, in a sense, the end of this mortal life is God’s greatest work of healing mercy because we believe that absent from us, Christians are present with the Lord. That they’ve been raised imperishable and received spiritual bodies and that they are now awaiting the final day of resurrection and the restoration of their physical body.
So being raised with Christ is the greatest yes answer to our petitions for healing. God’s yes sees us restored beyond our greatest hope, even as the lesser things that we do not bother to ask for are also healed. Not only are we healed of our immediate concerns, but this also means no more headaches, no more toothaches, no more jammed fingers or stubbed toes, no more aching back, joints, or arthritis, and no more cancer, heart disease, stroke, weakness, pain, congestion, memory loss, or difficulty eating, breathing, and swallowing.
Being healed, restored, and made whole as the Lord always intended us to be is the glorious transformation that every Christian looks forward to for ourselves and for our loved ones in the faith. That is our hope. For when in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. That is the hope we are sharing and celebrating with Sid and his family today. That is the hope and prayer which has been offered up in faith for Nancy.
Again, I am sad that I did not get to meet Miss Nancy sooner in life because over these past few weeks I have heard so many stories about her days of strength. Yet I believe that one day, when we are all raised together with Jesus Christ, I will have the opportunity to meet her in such a way when her strength is made even stronger.
Finally, I commend all of us to rest confidently in your faith in Jesus, engage in prayer constantly, ask our heavenly Father the unreasonable, outrageous, and miraculous, ask, and then watch the working of his hand in all things. Look up higher, raise up your hopes and expectations even higher, and see how what feels like God’s no truly becomes the greatest and most wonderful of God’s yes.
Have faith in God. Pray, believe that God will bring your prayer of faith to fruition according to his will for us. Keep your faith in Jesus Christ. Keep on praying for healing. Believe that God will heal you and all who earnestly call upon His holy name in faith. Trust him and believe that you have received his yes because you will surely receive it his way, according to his will. Amen.