Mark 11:24 - "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. " (NKJV)
FAITH IS A NECESSARY INGREDIENT OF PRAYER. Before we come to God in prayer, faith must be present. E.M. Bounds said that, "In any study of the principles and procedure of prayer, of its activities and enterprises, first place, must, of necessity, be given to faith. IT IS THE INITIAL QUALITY IN THE HEART OF ANY MAN WHO ESSAYS TO TALK TO THE UNSEEN." I totally agree with this statement. It really takes faith to pray and talk to someone whom you do not see and have not even seen. And it takes even more faith to trust and believe that He can provide answers to the petitions we will utter.
PRAYER IS AN EXPRESSION OF OUR FAITH IN GOD. Praying regularly sends a message to God that we trust Him, that He can do something in every situation in our lives. That's why when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he told them to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Jesus wants us to express our faith to Him each day of our lives through prayer and trust him for our daily sustenance.
OUR FAITH IS BEING KEPT ALIVE BY PRAYER. "When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live" (E.M. Bounds). Have you notice that the more time you spend with God in prayer, the more your faith gets stronger. And the less time you spend in prayer, the weaker your faith becomes. When we don't pray, we are becoming more susceptible to satan's temptations, we tend to lose our focus on God, and we start to make bad choices and decisions.
OUR FAITH DETERMINES THE ANSWERS TO OUR PRAYERS. In Mark 11:24, Jesus clearly stated that if we "believe" we can have WHATEVER we ask for in prayer. This is a promise with a condition, and the condition is FAITH. We need to have a strong faith in God first before He can deliver the answers to our prayers. The kind of faith we need to have is the total trust and dependence on God's power and ability to do even the impossible things and fulfill whatever He promised in His Word.
As we have declared 2009 as the "Year of Overflow", let's express our faith in God through prayer and fasting that He can truly provide overflowing blessings in our lives and He alone has the power to release the answers to every petition we have. The more we become faithful in coming to God in prayer coupled with fasting, the more our faith will be strengthened. And when our faith is strengthened, we will please God and this will cause Him to unlock the door of blessings and release the overflowing answers to all our needs and requests.
Let us not get tired of bombarding heaven with PRAYING AND FASTING until we obtain the answers and the OVERFLOW. Believe and have faith that as we faithfully come to God in prayer each day, he is faithful to grant us the answers we need. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (NKJV)
