Lesson 35: The Faith that Takes, part 1
Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
What a promise! so large, so Divine, that our little hearts cannot take it in, and in every possible way seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable; instead of allowing it, in its quickening power and energy, just as He gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what His love and power are really ready to do for us. Faith is very far from being a mere conviction of the truth of God’s word, or a conclusion drawn from certain premises. It is the ear which has heard God say what He will do, the eye which has seen Him doing it, and, therefore, where there is true faith, it is impossible but the answer must come. If we only see to it that we do the one thing that He asks of us as we pray: BELIEVE that you have received; He will see to it that He does the thing He has promised: “You shall have them.” The key-note of Solomon’s prayer (2 Chron. 6:4), “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has with His hands fulfilled that which He spoke with His mouth to my father David,” is the key-note of all true prayer: the joyful adoration of a God whose hand always secures the fulfilment of what His mouth hath spoken. Let us in this spirit listen to the promise Jesus gives; each part of it has its Divine message.
“All things whatsoever.” At this first word our human wisdom at once begins to doubt and ask: This surely cannot be literally true? But if it is not, why did the Master speak it, using the very strongest expression He could find: “All things whatsoever”? And it is not as if this were the only time He spoke thus; is it not He who also said, “If you can believe, ALL THINGS are possible to him that believes;” “If you have faith, NOTHING shall be impossible to you.”
Faith is so wholly the work of God’s Spirit through His word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple, that it is impossible that the fulfilment should not come. Faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer. Yes, “ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER you shall ask in prayer believing, you receive.” The tendency of human reason is to interpose here, and with certain qualifying clauses, “if expedient,” “if according to God’s will,” to break the force of a statement which appears dangerous. Oh let us beware of dealing thus with the Master’s words. His promise is most literally true. He wants His often repeated “ALL THINGS” to enter into our hearts, and reveal to us how mighty the power of faith is, how truly the Head calls the members to share with Him in His power, how wholly our Father places His power at the disposal of the child that wholly trusts Him. In this “all things” faith is to have its food and strength: as we weaken it we weaken faith. The WHATSOEVER is unconditional: the only condition is what is implied in the believing. Before we can believe, we must find out and know what God’s will is. Believing is the exercise of a soul surrendered and given up to the influence of the Word and the Spirit. When once we do believe nothing shall be impossible. God forbid that we should try and bring down His ALL THINGS to the level of what we think possible. Let us now simply take Christ’s “WHATSOEVER” as the measure and the hope of our faith: it is a seed-word which, if taken just as He gives it, and kept in the heart, will unfold itself and strike root, fill our life with its fulness, and bring forth fruit abundantly.
Prayer: Blessed Lord, You came from the Father to show us all His love, and all the treasures of blessing that love is waiting to bestow.