Many people who say, “I believe God will heal me,” really mean, “I hope that He will heal me tomorrow.” That is not faith, because faith is not for tomorrow; faith is something that we have now. If we keep directing our expectation toward the future, we are substituting hope for faith.
Years ago, the university gave me a grant to go to Athens for my studies in Greek antiquity. Every morning outside my hotel, a group of shoeshine boys was waiting, determined to polish my shoes. They would not take no for an answer. About the fourth day I tried a different tactic. Instead of saying ‘no’ I told them: “tomorrow”!
This illustrates the way the devil sometimes cheats Christians. When we are seeking healing, or praying for salvation of unsaved loved ones, the devil does not flatly say, “You will not be healed,” or, “Your loved one will not be saved.” Instead, he says, “Yes, you will obtain what you are seeking, but not today; tomorrow!” We have hope, but not faith. However, God does not put us off until tomorrow. He says, “Now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold now is ‘the day of salvation’” (2 Corinthians 6:2). God lives in the eternal now. To faith, He never reveals Himself as “I was” or “I will be,” but always as “I am.” When we apply this principle to petitioning God, it will revolutionize this aspect of our prayer lives.
In Mark 11:24 Jesus told us, “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.” At the very moment that we ask, we receive. Granting still remains in the future, but receiving, by faith, takes place when we pray. The receiving is our part of the transaction; the manifesting is God’s.
The key to obtaining what we ask from God is to receive it by faith at the very moment we petition Him. Doing this sets us free from continual struggle and anxiety, and brings us into an inner rest.
Prayer response:
“Almighty God and Father, you are the eternal I Am. I thank you for the hope you have given me for the future and I praise you I can live by faith today. This is the confidence I have in approaching you: that if I ask anything according to your will, you will hear me. And if I know that you hear me – whatever I aks – I know that I have what I asked of you (1 John 5:14,15). Amen.”
