How faith works

Long bouts of coughing wracked my chest. Like whooping cough which I had suffered from as a child, the trumpet-like sounds were like a drum being thrummed, bending me over with pain as my sore throat gave me spasms. This was weeks ago. I'm well now. But I remembered what happened 60 years ago.

This was sore throat pain that I recalled having as a child, when I first discovered God's promise in Matthew 7:7. This was the first verse I'd noticed in the Bible. I'd read it for myself. I thought I'd found a quick cure! With the faith of a child, I took the promise of Jesus in the scriptures as a personal word. "Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you." Ask, Seek, Knock. The first letters spelled an acrostic, ASK. This was the first word the Lord highlighted in the Bible to me as a young believer in God, a new student of the Bible.

I prayed this word. With the simplicity of a child relying on a promise, I talked to God about it. I asked Him to heal me. I expected to be made well. But when I prayed, nothing happened. I got well within a week, but I wanted instant relief, a miracle.

What went wrong? Could I still trust God? Was His word true? That quest describes my journey. Since then I've learned that prayer touches heaven when we pray God's will. I've learned how angels get involved. I've learned how the answer may involve a process of time. I've learned how praise and patience are required. I've learned how faith can grow.

How faith works is one of the mysteries about God. It is something believers need to know because it affects every aspect of our relationship with the Lord. There are two reasons why we need to know this truth. The first is, God himself has set faith as an entrance exam; a qualifier to go further. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that he is..." The second reality is, if we keep trying to relate to God without faith, we won't get what we asked for. We doom ourselves to frustration and eventually give up. God responds to faith, not to desperation.

Because I began learning this as a child, I've had a lot of time to make mistakes, to think things through, and to experiment. I've learned more from my failures than my successes. With this long history, I've reached some satisfactory conclusions. I know for a fact that sincere prayer, when offered in faith, always works.

The problem is that diabolical propaganda campaigns against faith have succeeded. Due to satanic deceptions or due to liberalism and skepticism, Christians have quit praying. We've forfeited our privilege as God's children--to entreat our Father for help.

In most Christian circles, prayers are a religious litany with little expectancy of affecting an outcome. It is just the traditional thing to do.

This is far from the dynamic leverage displayed in the New Testament whereby doors opened, diseases departed, and evil rulers were brought down; all due to God's people praying.

What if we learned to pray in faith for our nation? What if prayers for our children set them up for success? What could be done if God's people could bring heaven down to earth?

Think about it. Where is your faith?

-- Ron Wood is a writer and minister. Contact him at [email protected] or visit www.touchedbygrace.org. His latest book is Emerging Apostles in the Developing Church. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Religion on 11/29/2017