Believing Prayer
When we read our Lord’s teaching on prayer in the Gospels, He can make us quite uncomfortable with His promises.
Consider statements like:
“Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn. 14:13).
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mk. 11:24).
These are the kinds of statements in Scripture that we want to immediately nuance rather than leave as stated. And our careful Calvinist tendency in prayer can be to offer up our desires, but then cut our faith down with a phrase like – if it’s Your will, Lord.
This of course is a good, biblical phrase. It is how Christ prayed in the Garden. And when rightly said, it is an expression of true humility before the Lord, acknowledging that He is the one in control.
At the same time, you must make sure that these words are not used as a subtle expression of doubt – of your little faith. All of these great promises from Christ are meant to encourage you to pray boldly, truly expecting God to answer your prayers.
To pray according to God’s will is not to pray according to His secret will, that which we have no knowledge of. Rather, when Scripture speaks this way, it is primarily talking about His revealed will – that which He has told us He desires or commands. Meaning, do not go and ask God for things He explicitly forbids. He won’t answer you (Jas. 4:3). But when you know that your prayers align with God’s revealed will in Scripture, Jesus says to pray with great faith, expecting God to fulfill your desires in His good pleasure.
Charles Spurgeon once told a story of a young boy who asked the leader of a prayer meeting to pray that his sister would read her Bible for the first time and be saved. And so when that leader began to lift up that request in the meeting, he saw the boy dart out the door. Quite perplexed, the leader later asked the boy why he so rudely left the meeting in the middle of prayer. This was the boy’s response – “I wanted to go home and see my sister read her Bible for the first time.”
That is believing prayer. That is how you ought to pray. Fully expecting your good Father to answer.