Blog 46 / Our High Calling

Prayer and Unbelief

“In the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly.” PS 5:3 NIV

I once remember hearing a preacher pose a challenging question during his message. “Are you surprised more when God answers prayer rather than when He doesn’t?”

Alas, there have been far too many occasions when I would have to answer yes to that. In fact, only this past week, after months of asking God for something big, He overwhelming and fully supplied what I had been asking. I was so surprised; I guess I wasn’t expecting it. Talk about unbelief!

Most of us seem to tend towards unbelief. We know God can answer prayer but we are not always sure that He will. We are so used to walking by sight rather than by faith that we want first to see and then we will believe. But Jesus tells us to first believe and then we will see. “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” John 11:4. True faith will always become sight, but not so sight becoming faith.

Unbelief is not to be taken lightly. After all it is sin. It hinders our walking by faith, limits our asking big things of God in prayer, and squelches the life of the Spirit in us.

Unbelief flows from our old nature along with selfishness, greed, anger, and the rest of the deeds of the flesh. Our old nature is incapable of true belief in the things of God. The good news is that as believers we have a new nature in Christ and this enables us to pray according to God’s will—prayers God is committed to answer.

And so a victorious prayer life is not the result of praying our own will but of allowing Jesus to pray through us what the Father desires. True prayer always begins and ends with God. When our Lord wants to do a work, He prompts His people to pray for the things He wants done. And it is inconceivable to think that He would not answer prayers that have originated with Him

As God prompts us to pray for the things He desires, we can then watch and wait with full assurance for His answers.

 

Colin Stott
GRN Global Prayer Coordinator

read colin’s previous blogs:
Our Motivation in Praying for the Lost – blog 45
demolishing strongholds – blog 44
overcome evil with good- blog 43
dealing with strongholds – blog 42
when our prayers go unanswered – blog 41
key to unanswered prayer – blog 40
prayer and The bride – blog 39
The Battle is the Lord’s – blog 38
praying for workers – blog 37
finding time to pray – blog 36
when the church is under attack – blog 35
FEASTING and FASTING – blog 34
OUR AUTHORITY IN PRAYER – blog 33
why ask for what we already have? – blog 32
is anyone praying for them? – blog 31
delays are part of answered prayer – blog 30
weapons of our warfare – blog 29
Keeping our spiritual fervor – blog 28
days of great harvest – blog 27
not i but christ – blog 26
what if – Blog 25
praying scripture – Blog 24
Prayer and obedience -Blog 23
the Prayer warrior – Blog 22
time alone with god – Blog 21
last resort – Blog 20
Prayer with rejoicing faith – Blog 19
travel the world through Prayer – Blog 18
lord, break me – Blog 17
ye have not because ye ask not – Blog 16
our Prayers reveal our heart – Blog 15
church of the living god – Blog 14
when we Pray for the lost – Blog 13
more than meets the eye – Blog 12
sugar cubes and  Prayer – Blog 11
it’s a wonderful life – Blog 10
the longings of god – Blog 9
praising god before he answers – Blog 8
no place like home – Blog 7
praying for god’s glory – Blog 6
are we known as formidable opponents – Blog 5
sugar cubes and Prayer – Blog 4
rejocing over god with singing – Blog 3
the indispensable Prayers of the church – Blog 2
the glorious end – Blog 1