Faith to Move Mountains?

How do you respond to some of these scripture verses: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) “For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen it will be done for him.” (Mark 11:23) “And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.” (I John 5:15)

Honestly, although I find these verses encouraging they also confuse me a bit. I know that our sovereign God is not to be thought of as a genie in a magic lamp that, if I have enough faith, will grant my every wish. And although some preach the power of positive thinking as the key to getting what we want, that seems to put more faith in our own will than in God’s. This “positive thinking” kind of prayer seems to me as meaningless as saying you will send someone “positive vibes”. (I’ve never understood what that was supposed to do.) It’s almost an understatement to acknowledge that there have been times when, despite the fervent prayers of many very devoted and faithful followers, the answers did not come as people had hoped and for which they had believed. What do we make of this? The most obvious example of this is regarding physical healing. When I look at my prayer list, which keeps getting longer and longer, the pages devoted to the health needs of friends and family members keep increasing. There are so many needs! And when I pray I am obviously praying for positive outcomes. I sometimes question my faith when prayers are not answered with the physical earthly healing or obvious outcome that was desired. Was my faith not strong enough? Do I not believe God can heal? Having wrestled with this over the years, I would find myself sometimes saying, as the father who wanted Jesus to heal his demon-possessed son, “I believe; please help my unbelief!” But I can say with conviction that I do indeed believe my God can do anything He pleases. He hears my prayers and my broken heart breaks His. But He sees the whole of eternity and I do not. Sometimes that physical healing is happening in our heavenly home. Sometimes the unanswered prayer for a storm to pass leads to new community and unexpected blessings.

I was listening to a podcast recently and the speaker said something I had to write down immediately so I wouldn’t forget it. A true prayer of faith is not in a particular outcome, but in the God of all outcomes. Ah, yes! That’s it! Because He is sovereign and sees the beginning from the end, I can trust Him with the outcomes, even if they don’t always align with what I had hoped for. Jesus himself modeled this before his crucifixion when he prayed in the garden with such deep conviction that he sweat droplets of blood. He asked for “this cup” (his impending death) to pass from him. Jesus, as God’s Son, was fully man but also fully God. He knew the plan. He foretold it to his followers. But he still struggled with it and asked if there could be another way. But then he says, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” There it is. He expressed his desire, but also surrendered to the ultimate will of His Father, knowing He had a plan and knew the outcome would save generations upon generations of believers. This is a model for us, dear friends.

But can God’s mind be changed because of our prayers? There seems to be an example of this in the Old Testament. Abraham asked God repeatedly to spare Sodom if fewer and fewer righteous people were found there. It seems God relented. Was He weak? Did He finally give in? And in the New Testament we read about Jesus’ parable of the widow who asked again and again for a judge to grant her justice and eventually, because of her persistence, it was given her. Well, let’s remember that God knows all–past, present and future. Abraham’s requests were no surprise to Him. Both that account and the parable of the widow say more about us as pray-ers than about God. Abraham’s faith grew each time he asked. (“Wow–God will save Sodom if only thirty righteous people are there. I bet He’ll save it if only twenty are there. Wow! Maybe even ten!”) And that persistent widow was believing with all her heart that her request could be granted and I imagine that her faith grew each time she asked. Prayer doesn’t change God. It changes us. When James tells us that the “effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” perhaps he isn’t just meaning that many prayers will be answered just how we wanted them to be. Perhaps what prayer avails is our personal trust in a good and loving God and full surrender to His will.

So, could my faith ever move a mountain? Honestly, I’ve never had a reason for desiring that an actual mountain be moved. But I do believe that God could do it if it was part of His ultimate plan. What mountains need to be moved in your life? Do you believe God can do it? He’s the Creator, Sustainer, Miracle-worker and Savior of the entire world. Of course He can do it! Pray with all that you have within you and know that He absolutely can do it–if it is in His plan, His will. As we pray, let us fix our eyes on Jesus rather than on our requests. Let’s ask for all the things, all the healing, all the blessings, but let’s keep our faith strongly rooted in our powerful God, not in the urgency of our prayers. When I look back now on those verses I noted at the beginning of this post, perhaps each of those should be read with a different focus. Rather than seeing just the words relating to the “wish granted”, notice the other words. Join me in asking the Lord to do a work in us as we pray, allowing our requests to adjust to His ultimate will in light of an eternity that we do not yet see.