Believe When You Pray

When my first two sons were little boys, they were part of a kids’ program at church where, among other things, they memorized Bible verses. One evening I helped my oldest son, who was probably about six years old at the time, practice his verses for the week. Among the verses was Matthew 21:22. Because the program used the somewhat antiquated King James Version of “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive,” I wanted to make sure my son understood what he was reciting.

This boy was a whiz kid when it came to memorization, and he easily repeated the verse after me. I said, “That’s great, honey! Now can you tell me what that verse means?”

With his bright blue eyes filled with innocence and sincerity, he said, “It means if I pray, and I ask Jesus for a sister, I’ll get one!”

His faith and the sweetness of his request touched my heart. He really understood!

But did I?

I think it was many years before I noticed the key word in that verse: BELIEVING.
There’s a difference in the way we pray when we really believe that God is who He says He is, when we believe that He will never leave us or forsake us, when we believe that He wants good things for us, when we believe that He loves us more than we can fathom, when we believe that He cannot lie, when we believe that every good and perfect gift comes from Him. . . . I could go on and on!

What we believe makes all the difference in how we pray and in the results of those prayers.

Although my son may not have prayed with completely pure motives (I overheard him telling his younger brother he wanted a sister to clean his room!), he did get his little sister a few years later.

And his mother learned to pray with a whole new confidence.