What Are You Willing to Ask God For? (part 2)

So last week I talked about how God hears our prayers and answers them. I talked about how we must abide in Him and whatever we ask for will be done for us (if you missed it read last weeks blog). But how do we build up the courage to pray those bold prayers? How do we ask God for those things that are impossible for man?

Faith. 

But what is faith? We throw that word around so much as "church folks" or as Christians but what does it really mean? the Oxford dictionaries definition of faith is "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something". When you have complete trust in something there is no doubt in your mind that it will carry out the function it is supposed to do.

Every morning when I get out of my bed I go over to the sink so i can brush my teeth. I understand that the faucet has two handles, one for hot water and one for cold. When I turn the handle on the right that is labeled hot I am trusting in the faucets ability to spray out hot water. I don't expect for cold water to come out because I turned on the hot water, not the cold.

If we can put our trust in a few metal pipes to spew out some hot water why is it so hard for us to trust in a God who healed the lame and the blind? A God who fed multitudes of people. A God who raised Lazarus from the dead. A God who Himself, in the form of Jesus, conquered death.

Hebrews 11:1 reads that faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. The Greek translation for substance/confidence is hupostasis. Hupostasis means "a setting or placing under, a thing put under, substructure, foundation,  something that is firm, that which has actual existence...etc." So Hupostasis is tangible. It is as real as the computer you are reading this blog from or as real as your glasses on your face.

Faith is not just something we use to get what we want, it is something that is required of us. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him MUST believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). 

When I read that verse I rejoiced because God does not want us to fail our classes. He doesn't want us to be in debt after we leave college. He doesn't want us continue to be held in bondage by our drinking addiction or by our pornography addiction. He wants to reward us for earnestly seeking Him. He wants us to be willing to ask Him for anything and everything.

But don't be mislead. God is not some genie in a lamp here to grant our every wishes. James says it like this: we don't receive because we don't ask (James 4:2) and we ask and don't receive because of our fleshly desires (James 4:3). Kinda confusing right? How do I know when I'm asking out of my flesh and when I'm asking something that God wants me to have?

Well we have to come to a point where we follow God just because He's GOD not because we want something. Then, the prayers we are willing to pray will line up with the will of God.

Live in Love. Live in Peace. Go in Freedom.

Daniel