Prayer of Faith
This writing may be more questions than answers and yet in questions we often find answers because it forces us to think and find the answer. I have often heard about the prayer of faith and yet I have perhaps a slightly different perspective on the matter. First what is faith? Faith is the confidence or assurance that a request we make will be answered. In other words, it is knowing with an absolute assurance that we will obtain that which we ask to be. It is not hope or even a slight bit of doubt. It is surety! One is sure! They know! That is faith. Doubt is just the opposite...not knowing. That brings us to another question. How shall I know and not doubt? The only way to know is to know the answer as the Maker sees it. In other words, one must have the knowledge of God in the matter he or she pursues and can make the request knowing God will follow through affirmatively to grant what we know is His will and beyond our ability to obtain. So, that brings us to another question. We often make a request of our Maker. Then later we ask again...and again...and again...and again...and again...and again. Are you starting to get the picture? Why do we keep asking if we know His will and have an absolute assurance He will perform and grant our request? Could the answer possibly be we doubt He will do it? Could it be we are unsure of what His will is and if so...how shall we be confident He will perform our request? And if we doubt and keep asking, are we really believing and acting in faith in our Maker? And if it is faith that pleases God to act, than how shall He act when we doubt?
Let me ask a few final questions. If what we need or request comes through God fulfilling our requests by faith in Him, do we not need to draw close to Him in love and find His will to guide us in all things so we do not go astray? And if faith works through love, doesn't our love for our Maker need to be an absolute even as our faith must be absolute? In other words our love for our Maker is the substance that ensures the faith to work and give us that assurance. It is as a parent and a child. It is love between the two that makes the confidence and trust grow between the two. Neither one or only one can do it themself. It takes the two and work from both sides. You see, God is ever willing and able yet we lack the love which produces the faith to know Him. And so it is that faith works through love. And so it is that the prayer of faith ensures and assures us of His love and so we obtain that which we request because we know Him and receive that which He is willing to give. And so the prayer of faith is made with one request and not many because we are assured the first time we ask. You see, there truly is a reason we keep asking, yet we do not understand and so we persist just as a small child who does not understand his parent. Let us get to know Him and love Him with all our heart and then a prayer of faith through love will ascend unto the Highest and we shall surely see His greatness through the work that He performs through our requests. When we see and do this, we live a life of faith because not only will our prayers be in faith through love but our life will be in love with Him who performs all things in, with and for us at all times! Amen? Amen!