When Your Faith Is Weak... Do This!

Published: Fri, 05/24/24

Updated: Fri, 05/24/24

May 24, 2024 | View Online

Hey, it's Mark,

My good friend Jim again is back (by popular demand!) — this time with a unique message on prayer. Also, we invite you to join us at our prayer gathering on May 28th. We bring together folks from all over the world to pray for our ministry's impact, growth, partners, and team. Scroll to the bottom and you'll find the meetup details & join button.

Alright, that's it for me. Take it away Jim!

When Your Faith Is Weak... Do This!

Hey, Jim here. When I was a young Christian a friend of mine named Pat was brutally beaten in a gang fight. He ended up in a coma and was not expected to live. Pat's family knew I was a Christian and they asked me to pray.

It was overwhelming that people were counting on my prayers to help my friend. My faith, what there was of it, seemed so small and weak.

Then I had a wonderful and liberating thought: maybe I should first ask God to give me the faith to trust Him for this miracle. I didn't know the reference, but I suddenly remembered the phrase, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. (I found it later in Hebrews 12:2).

If Jesus is both the author and the perfecter of our faith, then why not ask Him to grant me faith to believe Him for whatever He wants to do?

I think we’re on solid Scriptural ground when we ask God to give us faith to trust Him. Saving faith is itself a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our Lord has sovereignly gifted us with “a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). Certainly He can, if He chooses, increase that measure for His own glory.

Remember the father of the demon-possessed boy? He brought his poor, tormented son to Jesus’ disciples, but they couldn't help. So they took him to Jesus, who said, All things are possible for one who believes. So the father prayed: I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

That’s the prayer I mean.

On another occasion the disciples made a similar request. After Jesus had taught them a very difficult lesson about forgiveness, they cried out: Increase our faith! (Luke 17:5)

Praying for greater faith recognizes it comes from the Lord in the first place. How humbling is it to admit that the one thing God tells us we must do (trust Him!) is itself beyond us apart from His grace!

Notice, this is not a way of manipulating God into giving us what we want. With humble hearts we approach our God, knowing that He controls all things and that all He has chosen to do will be done. But He has given us prayer as one of the ways we participate in His will being done.

So we pray:

“Lord, I’m not sure what Your plans are in this situation. My heart longs to see X, Y, and Z happen, and I hope that’s what You’ll do. I believe, but help my unbelief. Grant that I can believe you for whatever You want done, to Your glory and honor. Your will be done!”

That’s how I prayed, so many years ago.

Father, please grant me the faith to believe whatever You want to do. I believe, but help my unbelief. Please heal Pat!

God was so gracious.

Pat came out of the coma and recovered completely.

Let's pray together!

We bring together folks from all over the world to pray for DJJ Ministry's impact, growth, partners, and team. Whether you're new around here or you've been praying for our ministry since we launched 8 years ago, we would love to have you join us this month (and every month) at our prayer gathering online via ZOOM! Click the link below to view our meetup's start time in your time zone:

Start Time:

Tuesday, May 28

View start time HERE.

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