For the second year in a row, I have been participating in 21 days of prayer during the month of January at Church of the Highlands. I’ve really enjoyed this season of prayer and fasting as there is no greater way to begin the year than seeking the heart of God. The more you seek God in prayer, the more you find that God wants to teach and encourage you, and I’ve experienced that during this season. The theme that has been on my heart throughout these 21 days has been “Faith.” That word may seem elementary, since it is one of the first words that a believer understands, but just like scripture, it is a word that is alive and active. I love it when God gives us fresh perspective on subjects we think we know so well.
The writer of Hebrews gives a great definition of faith in chapter 11: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” The word ‘assurance’ can be defined as “a strong and definite statement that something will happen or that something is true.” What a great picture of faith. Putting that definition to practice, however, can often be hard because Satan wants to rob us of the promise that comes with having faith.
There is this great story in Mark 8 that gives an example of what we as believers go through. Jesus is feeding four thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish. After he performs this great miracle, He has to deal with his disciples’ doubts. They were crossing by boat to the other side of the region, and the disciples realized that they only had one loaf of bread for the journey. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” (Mark 8:17-18). Upon reading this, I immediately am reminded how we, as believers, get near sighted and fail to remember what God has done for us. The disciples are on the journey of a lifetime following Jesus, and right after they see this great miracle, do they think that Jesus can’t do it again? Feeding 12 compared to 4,000 is a much easier task.
I’m the same way in my faith. God has been so gracious to me and has done so much for me in my life but there are times that I lose track of that. It is easy to do when you have been praying for something for a long time, but have yet to receive an answer. As I’ve grown in my faith I’ve come to realize that doubt is the greatest enemy to prayer. The moment I doubt is the moment I believe that God can’t do it, which is far from the truth. Faith is what makes prayer possible. When I go to God in prayer, I go in assurance that He hears my prayer and that He will respond. He might not respond right away, but I have to trust that His timing is perfect. Though the waiting challenges my faithfulness, I know it is by faith that He will answer.
reflections of a theologian 