Pray and Believe

2 Kings 8:1-9:13

Acts 16:16-40

Psalm 143:1-12

Proverbs 17:26

Reading about Elisha and the acts of the apostles I am amazed at how convinced they are that God will act.

I think most Christians I know pray "if it's Your will God" as though they have no inclination as to what God's will is.

So much of God...His will...His character...His plans....are a mystery. But we have His Spirit within us...in 1 Corinthians 2 Paul says "we have the mind of Christ." That's crazy! That's real! He lives within us and He speaks to us.

Sometimes God is silent...but I think most of the time He's actually quietly speaking to our hearts. We are not in the dark! We are in the light!

The more I read the Bible the more I am convinced of how much light and truth is around me. The more I know I am not in the dark. The more I know He is speaking to my heart!

Elisha and the apostles aren't often described as sitting around waiting for God to tell them what to do. They certainly do that. They certainly pray for guidance and "if it's Your will God" prayers...but there are also so many instances of heat-of-the-moment-acting-in-the-Spirit. They see a paralyzed man and boom they command him to stand, no passive vague prayer, they know God will heal the man. Elisha hears his friend has lost his ax and boom he does some weird thing and the ax is back, no passive vague prayer, he knows God will act.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but maybe we're actually overcomplicating things. Maybe we need to spend time in prayer, spend time in the Word, spend time learning His voice, but maybe that's not our only position. Maybe we do all that so that we don't have to passive and vaguely pray when it counts. Maybe we do all that so that we can build a relationship with the God of the universe so that when circumstances come our way we already know what the Holy Spirit is saying because we know Him.

Maybe we've been praying too much...and not believing enough.