And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:22-24

In the passage above, we read Jesus telling his disciples to have
faith in God. So what does it mean to have faith? Is faith believing
in God? As St. James said, "even demons believe in God - and
they shudder". So faith is more than believing in God.

Is faith then believing that God can do and will do what we ask?
Clearly, again, the answer is no. We have very often experienced that
in our lives where the Lord would not give us what we ask. This is
not because God does not have the power to give what we ask for. God
can do anything he wants!

But, some will argue that Jesus himself said that if we say to the
mountain to move, and IF WE DO NOT DOUBT IN OUR HEARTS, then it will
be done. So if I think something is good, I can tell the Lord to
bless it and it will be done. If that is their argument, then they
want God to obey them just because they say so. They become the Lord
of the relationship - always dictating THEIR terms and doing what
THEY believe to be the best. And of course, because to them it is
good, this is from God. All because they think they have a monopoly
of the grace of God. This kind of reasoning is very shallow and very
arrogant. Sadly, many 'mature' Christians think this way - and I
will tell them flatly - that they are very wrong!

So what then is faith?

Before we continue, there has to be some basic things that we have
to accept. First is that God is Lord and he can do what he wants and
he does what he wants. No one can tell God what to do and he is not
bound to obey us just because we say so. We have to be very clear
about this otherwise, the following discussion will not have any
sense.

If God can do what he wants and if God does what he wants, then we
cannot dictate anything to God. But Jesus clearly states that things
will happen if we say so - if we do not doubt. Is there a conflict?
Yes there is, unless we look at what Jesus really meant when he said
this.

Jesus said, "have faith in God".
Faith is the result of our union with God. Please say it aloud: faith
is the result of our union with God. We have faith, not because we
say so, neither do we have faith just because we attended a seminar
or a leader in a ministry. We have faith because we know God. Knowing
is more than intellectual knowledge - it is UNION OF OUR WILL WITH
HIS WILL. If there is no union of will with God, there is no faith.
If there is union with God, we are able to get a sense of what God
wants to do. And if God wants to move a mountain and he chose us to
move that mountain, then we can tell the mountain to move - and then
it will move. It will not move because we say so - it moves because
God wants it to move!

The end of this passage is a conclusion and a command: THEREFORE
- conclusion, I tell you - you better listen - "whatever
you ask in prayer, (now, this
is the command) believe that you have received it, (result)
and it will be yours."

We are commanded to believe that we have received what we have
asked in prayer. Now, what is prayer? Is it a way of worship? Is
prayer a set of gestures? Prayer is the process where we can be
united with God. It is the process of uniting our will with God. It
is bending our will to God's will rather than convincing the Lord to
bend to ours. Once our will is united with God and we get a sense of
what he wants, then - we can ask what God wants us to ask - and it
will be given to us!

Lent is a time for prayer. As we have said, prayer is uniting our
will with God's will. It is only through prayer that we can bear the
fruit of faith. Without prayer - there is no union. Without union,
there is no faith. Without faith - we cannot see miracles in our
lives.

Do you want to see a miracle in the coming months? Take time to
pray.

May we all have a prayerful season so that we may be able to
celebrate our victory with the power and glory of our Lord, Amen