There's a story in the Bible where the whole nation of Israel is in the midst of a terrible calamity at the hand of a pursing king. This king wants to wipe Israel off the map and plant his banner where the hole is that he left. In front of all the hosts of Judah, the king kneels down and prays. He says in the prayer, "we don't know what to do but our eyes are fixed on You".
That day God wrought a marvelous victory for His people and centuries later we tell this story to our kids to show them the power of God.
I'm all grown up and I have kids of my own and I look out into this world and survey all the evil that is in it and I cringe because it too i seeking to take us, children of God, out and plat it's preverbal flag where our hole is left. We pray just like that good king all those years ago, we might even fast if it will help. We seem to go through all of the motions but our hearts never white believe that God will come through like we used to hear in the stories.
Be honest. When is the last time you prayed for something and truly needed it to happen and then believed that God would work a miracle? Truth is that most of us believe that the miracle is within ourselves, "if we believe". Isn't that what the song says? So if we just work hard enough, try hard enough, cooperate with God enough or something like that it will work out. And if it doesn't well… we didn't want it that bad anyway.
I just lost something dear to me and I truly wanted it. I prayed, cried and prayed some more but it still was lost to me. I do not have peace over the thing because I know it was not God's will that I should loose it. Yet I still believe in God's power to restore in this life.
I am reminded of a text in Jeremiah 23. It reads:
6. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
8. But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
This promise is ancient yet I am one of those weird ones who still believes in it. God wants to be our salvation today! He wants us to stop looking at the "Faith of our Fathers" and establish faith for ourselves. He wants us to stop being like Martha at Lazarus' tomb and putting off God's deliverance until whenever, when Jesus says that He is our deliverance TODAY.
Many of us are like that invalid man at the pool of Bethesda. We want to be healed but we can't seem to work hard enough to get there and when it seems like there's a breakthrough coming we are always NEXT in line but not receiving it. Yet Jesus is standing over us asking if we want to be healed and we don't have the since enough to believe that He can do it.
When did we stop believing?
The minute we decided that prayer doesn't work and that we must work for ourselves. Well I for one want to live a life that will take God at His word and believe Him for my healing, my victory and my breakthrough. He promised me in John 16 that in this world I'm going to have a hard time but that I should not be discouraged because He has overcome this world. It is through that same power that I too will overcome by faith with tribulations but with increase in favor from the LIVING GOD of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Josiah.