Pray in Faith

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on 11/13/16

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NRS Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done. ²² Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."

I want to share a story with you about an election that occurred. The followers of the candidate reveled in the wisdom they received when listening. They got excited about the almost revolutionary aspects of the message and how the candidate was going to change the establishment and the order of things including bringing women into their rightful place in society. They marveled at the way that the opposition pointed fingers of hate and exclaimed that the candidate was the devil incarnate, not the righteous person they knew in their hearts the candidate to be. As the election drew near the media of the day proclaimed the righteousness of the other candidate and drew the crowds against their beloved candidate. Day after day the two sides debated and argued. So the day of the election came and the candidate the media had swayed the people to vote for won. The other side was shocked and angry. They cried for hours and railed against those that had clamored for the other candidate. Out of their mouths hate and violence filled the air and they proclaimed that they would never accept the other candidate even though that candidate had been chosen. The media incited them in their explanations of justice and they were determined to never follow the candidate that won. So they followed their candidate. They followed him up the hill and watched him crucified and felt the shame of loss. For three days the two sides simmered at each other in hate and anger. And then they realized that the problem was not the people’s choice, but that they had trusted the media of the day to lead them, rather than trusting in the Lord. Both sides had allowed human thoughts and human decisions to sway them in their own focus about who to believe in and who to follow. And the world was changed from that day onward, at least for a little while.

Today I am going to finish my series on prayer. We have explored the Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray. We have talked about the need to have a prayer life and even have had several suggestions on how to do that. We have been challenged to pray an hour each day to God in prayer. So what does Jesus mean when He says to us, to pray in faith and whatever we pray in faith for will be received? But the real question that we need to ask is do we in fact trust God? Do we trust God in all that we do and all that we say? When we pray do we pray believing that God is going to answer those prayers?

I love the message in Proverbs 3: 5 that says, ^NRS  Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Trust in whom, in the Lord. With what, all our hearts. And do not rely on our own insight. The NIV uses the word understandings. Maybe the reason we are struggling with the election is that we trusted the wrong people to tell us what other people thought. Certainly that is the case when we put our trust in Hollywood or with the media. Hello, they have an agenda, selling us their ideas about justice and what is right or wrong. I don’t agree with Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel rather than stand for the national anthem even though I do agree he should have that right. But I also think he should realize that he should hold some sense of appreciation to the young men and women who fight for his right to do so and realize he could find a better way to send his message. Why? Because there are young people who follow his lead and put their trust in his judgment as their guide to right and wrong.

Solomon writing in Proverbs tells us that we are to acknowledge God and walk in the path of God. Children of God, we are truly blessed and we should have faith and trust in that blessing. Today as we enter this place we need to kneel down in prayer thanking God for being God, thanking God for the love that God gives us and thanking God for the abundance that God has provided. We need to kneel down in prayer and trust that God is going to see us through whatever the next few weeks, months and years will bring knowing that no matter what God is God and God’s message of love will be the same today, tomorrow and the next day.

Jeremiah tells us, ^NRS  Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. ⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. We are reminded that when we trust in God then we will grow; our root structure will be strong and even in the hard times we will survive. We have a responsibility to share the message of God with the world. I am not talking about the right or left politically but the center spiritually.

First John tells us, ^NRS  1 John 5:14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. If we pray to God in keeping with the will of God, whatever we ask for will be answered. So we pray for others, praying that they will be healed according to the will of God, praying for comfort and compassion and praying that God will bring presence and peace. But do we believe that God will answer those prayers? I believe, do you? I believe because I have seen and felt the presence of God in the midst of trial and tribulation. I believe because I have witnessed God’s hand at work in those who are suffering and oppressed by illness or situation. If we come to God in prayer trusting God’s will and believing that God will provide God will show up.

Why do we pray and how does prayer matter? Let me share a story with about Mother Teresa. One day in the mother house in Calcutta there were about three hundred novices and they were all out for the morning. One of the novices working in the kitchen came up to Mother Teresa and said, “We’ve planned poorly; we have no flour to back these chipaties for lunch.” Chipaties are little flour and water pancakes. The situation looked bleak—three hundred plus mouths are coming to be fed in about an hour and a half and there’s nothing to cook with. There’s no food.

“What I would expect Mother Teresa to do,” Fr. Langford explained to me, “was that Mother would pick up the telephone and call some of her benefactors and mobilize them to find some way to feed her daughters. Instead, her reaction—her spontaneous reaction—was to say to this little one, ‘Sister, you’re in charge of the kitchen this week? Well then, go into the chapel and tell Jesus we have no food. That’s settled. Now let’s move on. What’s next?’”

Lo and behold, ten minutes later there was a ring at the door and Mother Teresa was called downstairs. A man she had never seen before was standing there with a clipboard. He addressed her saying “Mother Teresa, we were just informed that the teachers at the city schools are going on strike. Classes have been dismissed and we have 7,000 lunches we don’t know what to do with. Can you help us use them?”

God provided for the needs of his children.

Mother Teresa’s sanctity was built on a very simple foundation of deep faith and trust in God. Mother Teresa turned to Him in prayer, not only in need, but also to rest in the arms of the Father—body and spirit. (This is an excerpt from the book, Let the Fire Fall, by Michael Scanlan, TOR, Servant Publications.)

The writer of 2nd Corinthians tells us to walk by faith, not by sight. To trust what we cannot see rather than what we can see. Trust is that kind of faith that Indiana Jones had when he looked beyond the great divide and believed that there was a path to cross. So he stepped out in faith and came into the place where the promise of God’s abundance existed.

There is a story about a man who is wandering in the darkness and falls off a cliff. As he is falling he reaches out and grabs a small tree growing out of the cliff and there he is hanging on for dear life. He cries out in the darkness, is anybody there, help, help! No one answers, so he cries out again and again, help, is anybody there, help. A voice cuts through the darkness, Yes my son. Who is there asks the man, can you please help me. Certainly says the voice, if you will trust me I can help. Who are you says the man. I am the Lord your God, the God of Abraham, Jacob and Moses. Ok, says the man, please help me. Do you trust me says God. Yes, Yes I trust you says the man. Then let go! The man ponders that for a moment. Help Help me, says the man, is there anybody else up there that can help me, help, help.

In the very middle of the Bible, that place where there are as many verses before it as after it is Psalm 118:8. It says these words, NRS  Psalm 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to put confidence in mortals. Pray in faith means that we take refuge in God, trusting that God can do what only God can do and not having our faith in human means. When we put our faith in humans we set ourselves up for disappointment and pain. God tells us to come to God in prayer and to trust in the Lord God with all our heart, mind and soul. Pray with conviction and belief. Pray in faith.