"Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Matthew 21:21-22
This is a really powerful idea to which we add caveats all the time, and we add caveats because we don't want people to think of God as a genie. Perhaps also we don't really grasp what faith is. Sometimes we interpret it as wishing or wanting something really hard. We feel like if we want it enough that we can kind of wish it into being, and we work to have faith in that thing that we want rather than in God, and in his will.
James 4:3 and 2 Nephi 4:35 mention that we will get what we ask for, if we don't ask amiss, and I think that is part of the focus on God thing. Like Christ, we need to be willing to do things God's way. In 1 Nephi 7:17-18 for instance we read about Nephi asking for deliverance, and then asking for a specific thing--for the power to break out of the ropes that were binding him. His faith worked, but God didn't answer his prayer in exactly the way that he had asked. Instead, his bands were loosed. Perhaps not quite as impressive, but it still solved the problem, in the way that God desired it to be solved. Nephi's faith in God paid off, but not his faith in being able to break the ropes. In this case, perhaps he asked amiss... and so do we sometimes. We get answers, but when they aren't exactly what we wanted, and we have to keep working with God to make sure we are on the same page.
As we pray and learn more about God, we learn to recognize the spirit that teaches us how to pray, and helps us to understand God's perspective. As long as we are in tune with that spirit, then we can have faith that what we are asking is God's will, and if it is God's will, then if we ask for it, it will happen. Faith is powerful, but we have to remember that it has to be faith in God, not something like faith in unicorns, right?
I don't mean to diminish the miraculous nature of this promise, by the way. I know that this promise works because I have seen it happen. God helps us overcome obstacles and even solves problems for us when we can't solve them ourselves. Today, let's believe in miracles and put our faith in God. Let's ask God for what we need, and let's be humble and willing to accept it when he sometimes turns our lives in a different way than we expected. The path that God asks us to follow is always the right one, even if it doesn't match our desires.
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Matthew 21:21-22
This is a really powerful idea to which we add caveats all the time, and we add caveats because we don't want people to think of God as a genie. Perhaps also we don't really grasp what faith is. Sometimes we interpret it as wishing or wanting something really hard. We feel like if we want it enough that we can kind of wish it into being, and we work to have faith in that thing that we want rather than in God, and in his will.
James 4:3 and 2 Nephi 4:35 mention that we will get what we ask for, if we don't ask amiss, and I think that is part of the focus on God thing. Like Christ, we need to be willing to do things God's way. In 1 Nephi 7:17-18 for instance we read about Nephi asking for deliverance, and then asking for a specific thing--for the power to break out of the ropes that were binding him. His faith worked, but God didn't answer his prayer in exactly the way that he had asked. Instead, his bands were loosed. Perhaps not quite as impressive, but it still solved the problem, in the way that God desired it to be solved. Nephi's faith in God paid off, but not his faith in being able to break the ropes. In this case, perhaps he asked amiss... and so do we sometimes. We get answers, but when they aren't exactly what we wanted, and we have to keep working with God to make sure we are on the same page.
As we pray and learn more about God, we learn to recognize the spirit that teaches us how to pray, and helps us to understand God's perspective. As long as we are in tune with that spirit, then we can have faith that what we are asking is God's will, and if it is God's will, then if we ask for it, it will happen. Faith is powerful, but we have to remember that it has to be faith in God, not something like faith in unicorns, right?
I don't mean to diminish the miraculous nature of this promise, by the way. I know that this promise works because I have seen it happen. God helps us overcome obstacles and even solves problems for us when we can't solve them ourselves. Today, let's believe in miracles and put our faith in God. Let's ask God for what we need, and let's be humble and willing to accept it when he sometimes turns our lives in a different way than we expected. The path that God asks us to follow is always the right one, even if it doesn't match our desires.
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