All scripture quoted is from the NIV translation unless labeled differently.

 

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.- James 1:6. 

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,-Matthew 27:50 (NKJV)    

“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:8.

 

Every Time I Pray

I have this confidence in my God
Each and every time I kneel to pray.
That my Father Abba loves me
And He will provide for me a way.

Because I know the love of my Father
And the Christ whom He sent,
I know My Abba’s will is always for me
So no man can come against.

I don’t worry about cloudy skies
I’m not fearful that it might rain.
For, I know I cannot be harmed
While I’m protected in His name.

I have this confidence in my God
Each and every time I kneel to pray,
That according to His promises
He will provide for me a way

I have never once needed luck
For my life has never been a gamble
It’s a sure thing my Abba will protect me
No matter where I travel.

I don’t second guess his thoughts,
I don’t doubt the sincerity of His word,
I play the cards He has dealt me
Each represents a promise that I’ve heard.

And so I have this confidence in my God
Each and every time I kneel to pray.
That even as I kneel, my Abba
Prepares for me the perfect way.
©Linda Troxell 10/01/2019

James says that when we pray to ask God for something, we must believe and not doubt. If, we doubt, he says, we should expect nothing from God. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.-James 1:6. (NIV)

The first time I read this I was disheartened. I could not believe that James was saying that if I doubt my prayers are useless.

Is there anyone who has no doubt when they pray? If there is I don’t know them. It never occurred to me to seek a different understanding of that passage in James. I just leaned on my own understanding and went on feeling dejected.

Each time I read this disheartening passage, within a short time I would put it out of my mind and I would continue to pray, doubts and all. And the next time I had occasion to read James, and every occasion after, I would go through the same unproductive cycle.

I would read that praying with doubts is useless, feel helpless and hopeless about the efficacy of my prayer, and move on and forget about what James said. It was a cycle that had a very negative effect on my prayer life.

I wasn’t aware, at the time, that my understanding of the passage was affecting all of my prayers. I thought that when I put it out of my mind it was gone. But the truth is that it was there buried just below the surface of my consciousness.

The effect I noticed first was that my prayers were flat. I felt like I was going through the motions but not connecting with God. I wasn’t really getting the peace I used to get from praying.

I had no idea what was wrong. It seemed to me that this change just happened one day. I couldn’t attribute it to any event or even a given day.

It seemed as if one minute my prayers were effective and the next minute they weren’t. The only thing I could think to do was to pray for God to help me get my prayers back. And I did, doubt and all.

I probably would have gone on in that vicious cycle forever had I not decided (I’m sure with a little nudge from God) to do a study of the book of James. It was through the study that I learned my interpretation of the passage was all wrong.

I found this partially from reading a different translation of the passage and partially from a commentary I read online. I recommend doing both if you ever need clarification of a Bible verse.

When I read the Amplified Bible it said this:  “But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts…” –James 1:6 (AMP) Well that was a game-changer. For me, there is a world of difference between asking with faith in God and asking without doubt.

I had never doubted God’s ability or willingness to give me what I was praying for. My doubt was only about if He would. I doubted the outcome for I know God would never give me what is not within His will. I doubted because I didn’t know if what I asked for was right for me at the time. But I never doubted God’s willingness or desire to help.

The online commentary I read is called Enduring Word,  and it supported what I learned in the Amplified Bible.  It said this: “Our request for wisdom must be made like any other request – in faith, without doubting God’s ability or desire to give us His wisdom.”

This made me realize that I was not only giving the verse meaning that wasn’t intended but that James was talking about prayer for a specific thing, wisdom.

Maybe he would say it is the same for any prayer, I certainly think we must pray with faith, and maybe he wouldn’t. Either way, the point remains that we need to read the Bible carefully, paying attention to what it says as well as what it means.

And when we are uncomfortable about anything or unclear, we need to do some research and ask some questions. Yes, God’s Word is indisputable, but the way we interpret it certainly isn’t.

I truly love this quote from Charles Spurgeon, which was at the end of the commentary on that verse in James. I believe its humor gently and perfectly wraps up the message of the commentary: “We notice that not only must one come in faith, but one must also ask in faith, and this is where the prayers of many people fail. “You know, dear friends, that there is a way of praying in which you ask for nothing, and get it.” -Charles Spurgeon

Since my confusion about the book of James, I have grown in my prayer life. I am grateful that I moved past that stumbling block to prayer. Because among the greatest gift we have received from God is the privilege to pray to Him directly.

We have this privilege only because when Jesus died for us on the cross, God tore the temple veil that separated man from God. At that moment we were reconciled to God through His son and our privilege to speak directly to God was restored. –Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, –Matthew 27:50 (NKJV)    

When I first became a Christian I was really confused about prayer and had many questions. How do I do it? What do I say? What if I do it wrong? When I look back now it’s as if I was a toddler to whom the entire world is confusing.

What I learned is that God wants us to talk to him so much that there is virtually no way we can get it wrong. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. –1 John 5:14

When I was struggling, it really helped me when someone suggested that I think of prayer as nothing more than a conversation with God.

It can be hard, in the beginning, to talk to someone who is not audibly talking back. But don’t think that because He doesn’t answer in words that He isn’t listening or that He isn’t answering.

It took me a while to understand all of the ways in which God speaks to me if I am listening. He speaks to me through other people. Often, the answer I have prayed for is given to me in a conversation with someone else. He speaks through music; He speaks through books, especially His Word. If we are listening and if we are willing to hear, there is no way in which God can’t talk to us.

If you are having difficulty feeling comfortable in prayer, try experimenting with different manners of prayer. Try singing your prayers, try saying them silently, try saying them out loud, and try writing them out. I finally came to know that, for me, the best way to pray is out loud.

But I also keep up a running conversation with God all day long. I talk to Him as if He was right there in the room next to me. I live alone so I’m free to do this. It isn’t something I recommend if you are out in public or you live with others, but try it at home sometime when you’re alone.

In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus gives clear instructions about how to pray in what has become known as The Lord’s Prayer. It is a short prayer in which He illustrates the form our prayers should take.

He tells us that these elements should be included in every prayer we pray, in this order. We should praise God, submit to His will, ask Him to provide for us that day and ask Him for forgiveness and deliverance.

In this model Jesus shows us that prayer firsts and foremost is to honor and submit to God. It is more important to honor God than it is to ask Him for anything. And it is more important to ask to know His will than it is to ask for provision or deliverance.

Don’t be confused, He isn’t saying that this is the only prayer that is effective. Rather, He is giving us an effective model of how our prayers should be structured; prayer isn’t first a way of asking for something or telling God our feelings. It is first a vehicle of worship.

Interestingly, right before He shares this prayer, also in Matthew 6, He tells us that the Father knows what we need before we ask. “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. –Matthew 6:8.

This scripture inevitably brings up the question of why we should pray if God already knows what we need. And it’s a good question. But if you paid attention to the preceding paragraph, you should already know the answer. The answer lies in knowing what prayer is and what it isn’t.

Prayer is not a way of transferring information as a conversation with friends might be. It isn’t, at its foundation, a means of asking God to provide for us. Prayer is an act of humility and worship.

Each time we pray, no matter what form it takes, we should be glorifying God and submitting ourselves to Him while we admit that we don’t know how to manage our lives. We should be telling Him that we need Him and are accepting Him as our Lord.

What’s important for us to remember is that God hears our prayers no matter how we pray. He hears whether we are praying out loud, in song, or silently, in our hearts and minds. He even hears our prayers when we are unable to put them into words.

Have you ever been crying so hard you couldn’t form words? Or have you ever been so scared, or even angry, all language fled from your mind? Well that’s when, as it tells us in Romans,“…[t]he Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirits Himself intercedes through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26.  And, in Jeremiah, the Bible tells us, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind…” Jeremiah 17:10.

We know God is omniscient, so of course, He knows everything about every situation in our lives. He knows what came before it and He knows what will come after. But that doesn’t mean that prayer isn’t important.

Even though God knows what is going on in our lives at all times, He gave us free will. That means that He will not come into our situation unless invited in through prayer.

But the payer need not be elaborate. In fact, Jesus warns against fancy prayers designed to impress. (Matthew 6:5).

If we’re stuck and don’t know what to say, we can always say something like this, it is everything a prayer needs to be: “I don’t know God, but I know you do, please help me.” and He will guide us along the path for which He has anointed us.

Prayer is a privilege and a gift. I believe it is the next best gift to Adam and Eve’s ability to speak to God face to face while walking with Him in the garden.

Through prayer, we can worship God, share our thoughts and feelings, and receive God’s love and protection, all at the same time He guides us and give us instruction.

Don’t miss out on the intimacy God wants to share with you because you think you don’t know how to pray. Just open your mouth and say “God, Please…” He will do the rest.

 

Let’s Pray
Father, we are so grateful for the gift of prayer. Especially the gift to be able to pray directly to you without a mediator. We know this was only given to us because Jesus reconciled us to you through his death. We do not take the gift lightly. Sometimes we feel like we don’t know how to pray in a manner that pleases you. But you tell us that you hear every prayer no matter how it is given. So, Lord, we will continue to pray the best way that we know how and we will know that if you want something different you will instruct us in that manner. We thank you for your gift of prayer so that we can worship and praise you. And we thank you that you have a desire to spend time with us and hear what we have to say. You are the one and only Holy God, there is no God above you.  There is no other God that is a mightier than you and no other God who could love us the way you do. Lord, we bow down to you in your glory and we worship you always. We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Points for Pondering and for Prayer

Or Perhaps for Putting Pen to Paper

The questions below are meant to stimulate your thinking about prayer and your prayer life. I hope it will help you to explore how your prayers might be more satisfying for you.

Do you know which manner of praying is most effective for you, e.g. quietly, silently, out loud, etc.?

How about which manner is the easiest for you?

Is the most effective manner also the easiest?

Have you experimented with different manners of prayer e.g. praying out loud, or praying in a song, or writing a prayer and recording yourself reciting it?  Or, perhaps writing it down but not recording it ? (Writing out a prayer either spontaneously or copying, can be a good way to get to some of your buried feelings.)     

If you haven’t experimented with the manner in which you pray, would you consider experimenting?

If you are resistant to experimenting with prayer do you know exactly what you are resisting?

Do you feel like it might benefit you to keep a prayer journal?

If not, have you ever tried keeping a prayer journal?

If you haven’t tried keeping a prayer journal, would you be willing to try?                                         

If no to all of the above, do you  know exactly what you are resisting?