Faith And Prayer

Faith and Prayer

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Mark 9:14-29

14 When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” 19 And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ aAll things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I 2command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came ainto the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

This narrative is about having faith in the works of the LORD through His Messiah. When the question is raised about faith and prayer, there are people on each side of the equation. Does prayer and faith work or not? The first thing to consider is that the LORD does not operate in the physical world with materialism. The need for material items is a human invention. Not that materialism is terrible; it is not a divine function. It is our free will that creates materialism and our need for it. Richard Foster’s book “Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home,” wrote that the LORD does not act on materialistic prayers, only spiritual prayers.

This statement is disheartening to many people who pray for all kinds of materials. I knew an older lady who said she lost an earring and prayed to the LORD to help her find it. A couple of days later, she found it and said her prayer worked. Another lady told me she prayed that the rainstorm would pass her home. It did, and she swears that her prayer caused it. Honestly speaking, neither of those prayers worked. Unfortunately, pastors and church folk push the narrative that all prayers come true. You may not like to hear this, but it is a false understanding of prayer.

What happens is that people who pray for material things and do not get what they asked for lose their faith. When I came into the ministry, I had to sell my house. The events of 9/11 occurred during the sale, and home sales stopped. I needed to sell the house because of the income drop that I experienced when going from a Computer Engineer to a Pastor in a rural area. I did not pray for the LORD to sell my house. Instead, I prayed that the LORD would send us a family who could learn about Jesus in the same way my family and I did. That is a spiritual prayer. Within five days, we had a reasonable offer. The new owner was about to start their family.

The bottom line is that the LORD does not interact on prayers about better jobs, fancy cars, and certainly not the lottery. However, I would venture to say that over 90% of people sitting in the pews believe that they can pray for anything and get it. They take the Scripture where Jesus says just ask the LORD for what you want. This is where I will remind you that the culture of Jesus’ day was vastly different from today. The people Jesus interacted with, in general, were poor peasants. They did not possess many material objects, and frankly, they were more concerned about food and water. They offered prayers to the LORD in thanksgiving for the basic necessities of life. In addition, prayer was listening to the voice of the LORD. Today we use a lot of words and have very little quiet time. Therefore, when Jesus said to ask the LORD in prayer, He referred to food, water, and shelter.