Jesus said, “When You Pray, You Must Believe!”…
The Bible tells us that we are not just to pray, but rather to pray believing.
If we are specifically told to believe when we pray, then it must be possible to pray and not believe.
Not all prayer brings results. Only believing prayer moves God and receives from Him.
“Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.”
— Charles Spurgeon
and…
“God has of His own motion placed Himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated Himself to answer the prayers of men.
He has ordained prayer as a means whereby He will do things through men as they pray, which He would not otherwise do.”
— E.M. Bounds
“But let him ask in faith, NOTHING wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1:6-7)
All of the world’s religions exhort men to pray, but it is only the Bible that requires men to believe what they pray.
This is the radical concept of the Bible – the requirement of actually trusting God.
This was first exhibited in the Old Testament, and further developed in the New Testament – the absolute necessity for one to believe when one prays.
Other religious systems are content with the motions of prayer, but the true Living God requires that we maintain a relationship with Him and that we trust Him.
Therefore, I say unto you, WHATSOEVER things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. (Mark 11:24)
Believing takes the emphasis off of prayer itself, and puts the emphasis entirely on God Himself.
It is all about Him and His FAITHFULNESS!
The Bible does not teach us to rely on prayer alone. It teaches us to rely on Jesus!
Only when we can fully rely on Him can we fully pray believing.
We are to believe Him first, and then express that belief in prayer.
The key to our getting answers to our prayers is our asking in accordance with God’s will, as it is revealed to us in Scripture.
God NEVER tells us to ask Him for things He doesn’t want us to have.
1 John 5:14-15 tells us,
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask ANYTHING according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, WHATEVER we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
If you can find a promise of God in the Bible that’s related to your situation, then hang on to your confidence that what God promises He is well able to perform; and pray with that same confidence, casting your very life and all your life circumstances upon the reliability and trustworthiness of both God and His Word.
Point in fact, God tells us that if we can’t do that, then it’s impossible for us to please Him (see Heb 11:6).
The Greek word for faith is Pistis. When doing apologetics, you will find that many non-believers do not know that to really grasp some of the scripture, you need to return to the original language in which they were written. This is one reason why the concept of faith is misunderstood amongst non-believers; they try to use a modern English definition for “faith.”
What is faith?
When we go to the Greek, the word takes on a different meaning.
Pistis is a noun, it means to trust something/someone with great confidence.
One of the problems in our Bibles is that the translators used the word “believe” for a derivative of Pistis (noun), but the word Pistis requires action along with belief, and the verb for Pistis is Pisteuo (verb), which we don’t have a word for in English.
[Pisteúō (from 4102 /Pistis, “faith,”: to believe, entrust)
Original Word: πιστεύω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: pisteuó
Phonetic Spelling: (pist-yoo’-o)
Definition: to believe, entrust
Usage: I believe, have faith in, trust in; pass: I am entrusted with.]
Everyone should be able to see the same root there; Pistis is faith, and Pisteuo should be the verb form of faith; to faithe, faithes, faithing, etc…
Instead, the translators rightly chose a word in English that actually existed; however, in English “believe” does not get the point across as “faithe” would.
Faith always requires action, based on our obedience to God’s Word, as we find illustrated in the Hall of Fame chapter on FAITH, in Hebrews 11
Our faith must be in our heart before the prayer comes out of the mouth.
But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Rom 10:8-10)
When you believe (Grk: Pisteuo) and are trusting in God with ALL your heart, mind and strength, you set a mighty force to work.
Like gravity, which is the strongest force in nature that can’t be seen, faith is a very strong force in the spirit.
Although it can’t be seen or explained, FAITH works.
So when you pray, believe, and when you truly believe, you shall receive!
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Originally posted April 28, 2021
Faith-it Devotions
“I’M PRAYING FOR YOU”
11 Bible Verses That Teach Us How to Pray Like Jesus Did
by Kelsey Straeter
“I’m praying for you.”
It’s one of the most common phrases Christians blurt out in response to a friend or family member’s hardships—but how often do we actually follow through?
“I’m praying for you” has almost become a colloquial cliché as commonplace as the “How are you?” we say to passing colleagues in the hallway and the “I’m sorry for your loss” we offer to hurting friends at a funeral.
The difference, however, is that the latter two phrases do not require action, whereas “I’m praying for you” does.
So often, I believe we fail to follow up on this promise to pray because we are not equipped with the knowledge of how we are supposed to pray.
As believers who desire to live with intention and purpose, it’s important that we learn how to pray well, both for our own personal good and on behalf of our fellow brothers and sisters.
So who better to look to as an example than our own Lord and Savior Jesus, who set the gold standard for praying to God boldly, believingly, and fervently in the face of a wide array of afflictions.
Here are 11 Bible verses that reflect on how our Savior prayed and teach us how God commanded us to pray both in our daily walks and in response to hardship:
1.) Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”
2.) Mark 1:35
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
3.) Philippians 4:3-7
“Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all, for the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
4.) Romans 12:12
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
5.) Luke 22:42
“He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ’Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me: yet not my will, but yours be done.’”
6.) 1 John 5:14
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
7.) James 1:6
“Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who ‘worry their prayers’ are like wind-whipped waves.”
8.) 2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
9.) Ephesians 6:18
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
10.) Mark 11:24
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
11.) Matthew 6:7
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”
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