As a response to Chris,
I’ve always taken the mountain as being a literal mountain. You being able to “not doubt” has a direct correlation to God’s will. If God wants the mountain moved, and he has “told” you to command it to move – no force on this earth will keep it in place. Of course, most mountains are where God placed them and He does not need them thrown around wily-nilly by us just because we said, “In Jesus name.”
The other aspect of this is when God moves a mountain literal (or metaphorical) and we think it does not count as being moved because we wanted something different. Example: Man prays to overcome (the mountain of) alcohol addiction. Man considers God did not answer his prayer because God did never removed the desire for liquor. What God actually provided was a friend who tried to get him enrolled in AA. God wanted the man to learn self-control (fruit of the spirit). So the mountain is moved slowly and in a manner that we did not expect. Look at the example of Naaman. He was actually offended at the way God chose to remove his leprosy. Good thing he had a wise servant.
This is the same with your observation on marriage. God grants – yes, but it is through His word and His principles that a good marriage is granted. Even non-believers that apply (unknowingly) these principles have good marriages. Like gravity, God’s principles work whether we “know” them or not. Also, like gravity, even if we know, and ignore them, we are heading for a fall. If we choose to be “unequally yoked” and expect God to remove all the problems that go with it because we prayed, we are being a tad naive. God will remove those problems (mountains), but brother, it will take a lot of work, because those mountains will be moved as the two move closer and closer to being “equally yoked”. That takes a lot of time, patience and love on the part of the Christian.
“God change the heart of my wife.” Sounds like a good prayer. Why wouldn’t God answer that with an Almighty “YES!” Maybe, God wants the man to repent of placing his will over the will of God in marrying her (non-believer) in the first place. Maybe the man needs to learn to be submissive to Christ before God uses him to help change the heart of his wife. If we’re not careful what we are realy praying, though we dress it up nice, is, “God my wife needs to be submissive, but I don’t.” God, of There are many facets to God answering our prayers. This is why understanding His will is so important. We can spend lots of time asking God for things that He will never grant without violating His own divine nature.
This is the truly beautiful aspect of prayer. It is communication. God has made His will known through the scriptures and will use these and (praise God) His indwelling Spirit to reveal how we should pray about specific things. Why does the prayer of a righteous man avail much? A truly righteous man has a better understanding of God’s will. Not through his own righteousness, like he earned a special place by God’s ear, but because he putting into practice the very principles that we need to know in order to understand what is within God’s will.
Many times we are all guilty of praying “God, I’m going here. Please, bless me!” (No communication - just a request) What we should pray is, “God, where would you like me to go?” <Pause for answer – just like in a “real” conversation> This is communication. If we are doing God’s will we won’t need to worry about being blessed.
God, in many ways is treated like a big invisible genie, and if we say the right words, or pray the right prayer, He must do our bidding. How far from the truth. I have children, but their thoughts and wants have very little impact on how the family is run or what direction it will take. Why, then do I listen to my children? Because I love them. I want to hear their hopes, their dreams, their fears. I even the impractical ones, that I know will never happen, and the ones that I will help them to achieve. Why? I already know most of them. Because there is a beauty in the relationship that would be lacking if they would not speak to me or I would not listen to them. I speak to them for that same reason. Another reason is so I can explain to them what I am doing and I can instruct them what they should truly desire. (He will give them the desires of their heart) This allows for a better relationship, a oneness, if you will, that is beyond our understanding. How amazing that Jesus asked the Father to allow us to share that oneness. (John 17:21) We miss this if we look at prayer as simply “rubbing the lamp”.
If you have ever had a sleepy child sitting in your lap telling you all the events of their day, I think God has given you a glimpse of Himself responding His children. What trust and security the child has in knowing that they are in the arms of a loving Father who is listening, responding and holding them for no other reason than He loves the child. All analogy is suspect, and this obviously does not cover all prayer situations, but it speaks to the communication that is so necessary to any true relationship. Do you wonder that Jesus was so scornful of repetitious and long winded prayers? Ultimately, this is what it means to pray – our being able to personally communicate with our heavenly Father.
Yours in Christ,
Daniel