Believing You have Received

Mark 11:24-25

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

I wrote these verses down in my journal this morning. The first verse (24) came up in a conversation with an old friend recently and it came back to mind this morning. I looked it up and was thinking about it. You know, Jesus doesn't say, "believe that you WILL receive it, and it will be yours." He says "believe that you HAVE received it..." So when I pray for forgiveness, I have already received it; when I pray for comfort, it's right there; when I pray for wisdom, I can trust that I have it; when I'm looking for hope, He's given it already... I just have to BELIEVE. What I am seeing change in my prayer life is that so often, and this is sad to admit, but often my 'prayers' have been so SELF-focused that many times I've left my time of prayer more sad and more burdened than when I started, because I've spent a half hour running though all the things that I'm struggling through in life. Instead, God is asking that in prayer, I lift my eyes to Him and realize that He has 'instantly' given me all that I need. There is no 'waiting.' The key is having my eyes on Him and not on me. He is truly enough. And He will meet all my needs. When I approach Him in prayer with this kind of faith and belief, really, He is already answering prayer even before the words are on my tongue.

The other thing that stood out to me this morning, though, was vs. 25. I hadn't really paired that verse with this verse when I was just thinking about it from memory. When I went to look up the verse on believing that I had received what I asked for in prayer, I wasn't remembering that this verse on forgiveness was the one that followed. But here's what I really like: God knows us. He knows that we will come to Him when we are in need -- when we are in a position to ask for things from Him. So in addressing that, He takes this opportunity here to kind-of say... "By the way..." WHILE you're standing there in prayer, if you've got a grudge against anyone, you need to forgive them... SO THAT your Father can forgive your sins." OK, so this is my interpretation of that verse with emphasis added. ;-) But it's kinda like God is saying to me, "Hey, while I've got your attention, are YOU paying attention to the fact that there are some things you are holding onto in your heart that you need to forgive?" Becasue those things you are holding onto are holding me back from fully forgiving your sins. Ouch.

Oftentimes, therapists (and books) will tell you that forgiving others is not so much about THEM as it is about what you are doing for YOU. Lack of forgiveness just kills our soul. I see this here in this verse... my unwillingness to forgive others (from the heart) keeps God from being able to forgive me - and thus free me from my sins.

When I think about what Jesus did in dying for my sin and all that He is willing to fogive me of, how ridiculous is it for me to hold anything against anyone? I don't really think of myself as one who holds grudges, but I've seen some things in myself recently that show me that I have some forgiving to do. So thank God for opening my eyes more clearly to that this morning.

And praise God that He is so willing to do anything for us - that He even invites us to ask anything of Him and He is willing to give it. All we have to do is believe....