Prayer Moves God
My prayer for you during this time of Palm Sunday and Easter is that you will see the Christ of the Cross in a new, beautiful, loving way, that you see Jesus as your personal Savior, the One Who loves you so dearly that He delivers you from all the cares and woes this world would place on you. He cares for you deeply. His love for you is without measure. I pray for a new picture of Jesus in your life.
Jesus said this to us in Mark 11:23,24: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.”
In these two verses Jesus told us that prayer does indeed move God, prayer in which you believe that God will move mountains for you. But we see here that we have something to do with it also. We are to SAY! We are to say to the mountains of difficulty in our lives (a form of prayer): Be removed and be gone! Then we are to have confidence in our words producing results. We are to believe God. We are to trust Him to take care of what we said. These are Jesus’ words. He said that whatever we desire, when we pray, believe that we receive them and we SHALL HAVE them. Does Jesus tell the truth? Yes He does! OK, then we can have what we pray or say.
In other words, God is saying: When you ask Me to do something, you come into a legal covenant with me. Believe that I will do it for you, that it will be done. That is the kind of prayer that moves God. You know your God. He knows you. You trust Him. You commit it all to Him. You believe He takes care of it. You go on your way and let Him handle it. It is a carefree life. All is well.
Since this is Easter week, let’s take a brief look at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. One of the things I want to point out to you is that people take this prayer and say: Well, that is the way we have to pray: Lord, if it be Thy will. No, this was a specific prayer of commitment regarding God’s will for Jesus’ life, not a prayer for healing or salvation or a prayer of petition.
Luke 22:39-46
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and His disciples followed Him.
When they came to the place, he said to them: Pray that you enter not into temptation.
He withdrew from them and kneeled down and prayed: Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an angel to him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and He said to them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
Even in the middle of His prayer to His Father that He stand firm and go the full course of the Father’s will and His will for the cross and all of its agony, He still prayed for His disciples that they enter not into temptation to deny their course. His solution for them was that they pray. What an admonition for all of us. Pray, and you won’t submit to satan’s temptation to go in a different direction than God and His Word for you.
Prayer was designed by God to move Him in the direction of His Word that you have just prayed. Pray His Word instead of your many fleshly words of the world. He will answer His Word every time.