Faith and Prayer

In any study of the principles, and procedure of prayer, first place, must, of necessity, be given to faith. It is the initial quality in the heart of any man who attempts to talk to the Unseen. He must, out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must believe, where he cannot prove.

Ultimately prayer is simply faith, claiming its natural yet marvelous prerogatives—faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance.

True godliness is just as true, steady, and persevering in the realm of faith as it is in the province of prayer.

Moreover: When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God. How great—without qualification or limitation—is the power of faith!

If doubt is banished from the heart, and unbelief made a stranger there, what we ask of God shall surely come to pass, and be granted to the believer as they have asked.  

Prayer projects faith on God - Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God!

In His cursing of the fig-tree our Lord demonstrated His power. Following that, He proceeded to declare, that large powers were committed to faith and prayer, not in order to kill but to make alive, not to blast but to bless.

Here is the very foundation of faith and prayer. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you” – Mark 11:24(NASB). 

We should ponder well that statement—“Believe that you have receive them, and they will be granted to you” − Here is described a faith which realizes, which appropriates, which takes. Such faith is a consciousness of the Divine, an experienced communion, a realized certainty. 

Ask yourself, 

• Is faith growing or declining as the years go by?
• Does faith stand strong, these days, as iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold?
• Does faith maintain its hold, as religion tends to become a mere formality and worldliness increasingly prevails? 

Our Lord asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” − The inquiry of our Lord, may, with great appropriateness, be ours. We believe that He will, and it is ours, in this our day, to see to it that the lamp of faith is trimmed and burning. 

Faith is the foundation of Christian character and the security of the soul.

In his Second Epistle, Peter speaking of growth in grace as a measure of safety in the Christian life says: 

“And besides this, giving diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.” (2 Pet 1:5)

Of this additive process, faith was the starting-point—the basis of the other graces of the Spirit. Faith was the foundation on which other things were to be built. Peter does not enjoin his readers to add to works or gifts or virtues but to faith.

Much depends on starting right in the process of growing in grace. There is a Divine order, of which Peter was aware; and so he goes on to declare that we are to give diligence to making our calling and election sure, which election is rendered certain adding to faith which, in turn, is done by constant, earnest praying.  Thus faith is kept alive by prayer, and every step taken, in this adding of grace to grace, is accompanied by prayer. 

The faith which creates powerful praying is the faith which centers itself on the power of Christ. Faith in Christ’s ability to do and to do greatly is the faith which prays greatly.

A praying faith keeps the commandments of God and does those things which are well pleasing in His sight. It asks, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” and answers quickly, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth.” Obedience helps faith, and faith, in turn, helps obedience.

To do God’s will is essential to true faith, and faith is necessary to implicit obedience. Yet faith is called upon, and that right often to wait in patience before God, and is prepared for God’s seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honored; it takes God at His Word, and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes, and in carrying on His work.

Among the large and luminous utterances of Jesus concerning prayer, none is more arresting than this:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it.” (John 14:12-14) 

• Faith in Christ is the basis of all working, and of all praying.
• Faith covers temporal as well as spiritual needs.
• Faith dispels all undue anxiety and needless care about what shall be eaten, what shall he drunk, what shall be worn.
• Faith lives in the present, and regards the day as being sufficient unto the evil thereof. It lives day by day, and dispels all fears for the morrow.
• Faith brings great ease of mind and perfect peace of heart. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusted in Thee.” (Isa 26:3)

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are, in a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not live in tomorrow but in today. We do not seek tomorrow’s grace or tomorrow’s bread. They thrive best, and get most out of life, who live in the living present.

They pray best who pray for today’s needs, not for tomorrow’s, which may render our prayers unnecessary and redundant by not existing at all!

True prayers are born of present trials and present needs. Bread, for today, is bread enough. Bread given for today is the strongest sort of pledge that there will be bread tomorrow.

Victory today, is the assurance of victory tomorrow. Our prayers need to be focused upon the present, We must trust God today, and leave tomorrow entirely with Him. The present is ours; the future belongs to God.

Remember this:

• Prayer is the task and duty of each recurring day—daily prayer for daily needs.
• As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer.
• No amount of praying, done today, will suffice for tomorrow’s praying. 
• No praying for tomorrow is of any great value to us today.
• To-day’s manna is what we need; tomorrow God will see that our needs are supplied.

This is the faith which God seeks to inspire.

So leave tomorrow, with its cares, its needs, its troubles, in God’s hands. There is no storing tomorrow’s grace or tomorrow’s praying; neither is there any laying-up of today’s grace, to meet tomorrow’s necessities. We cannot have tomorrow’s grace, we cannot eat tomorrow’s bread, we cannot do tomorrow’s praying. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;” and, most assuredly, if we possess faith, sufficient also, will be the good.

Have a Blessed Day!