Fear Cancels Out Faith

My friend made an interesting observation when she said, “Have you ever noticed people will spend 20 minutes talking about the problem and 30 seconds praying about it?”

Why is that? Why do we love to dwell on all the sordid details, the symptoms, the diagnosis, the prognosis . . .?

I’ll confess I’ve done this in the past and thought nothing of it. What’s wrong with knowing the details? Won’t that help me pray better—more specifically?

There are two reasons I don’t necessarily want to hear all the particulars of a matter before I pray: First of all, oftentimes prayer requests become nothing more than gossip sessions. For example, “Oh, we must pray for so-and-so; her child is in trouble.” And then begins the list of “troubles”—the drinking, the drugs, the run-ins with the law, and so on and so on. Do we need to know all this to pray for brokenhearted parents and their troubled child?

The second reason not to talk to death a prayer request has to do with how it affects our faith. When I hear things like “hopeless,” “terminal,” “awful,” and “really bad,” fear creeps in. Fear cancels out my faith. Before I’ve even begun to pray, I’m wondering if there’s any hope. And I know that when I pray, I must have faith; I must believe in order for my prayer to be effective (Hebrews 11:1, Mark 11:24, Hebrews 11:6).

My faith must be stronger than what I comprehend with my five senses, than what the situation presents. And that’s hard! I don’t need any help not believing! If I’m going to agree with God who “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:17), please don’t bombard me with what my carnal mind perceives. Just let me know there’s a need, and let me go to my Father who “knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” He knows the details; that’s good enough for me.