{"id":542,"date":"2018-06-11T08:18:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T12:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/?p=542"},"modified":"2018-06-11T08:18:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T12:18:17","slug":"praying-in-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/praying-in-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying in Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In yesterday&#8217;s message from our series in the Gospel of Mark, we spoke about praying in faith and what exactly does that mean? \u00a0Since yesterday, several people have reached out because that part wasn&#8217;t included completely in the sermon notes provided. \u00a0Therefore, I have decided to simply post that point specifically from yesterday&#8217;s message here. \u00a0I hope that it is a help.<\/p>\n<p>The text we studied yesterday was Mark 11:12-26. \u00a0This was an application point of the text. \u00a0Below is the text from yesterday on praying in faith:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Praying in faith means<\/strong>: We want to be careful when we talk about praying in faith. We don\u2019t want to give the idea that if we just believe in something enough that God will give it to us.\u00a0 So what does praying in faith mean?\u00a0 <strong>First, it means having a relationship with God<\/strong>.\u00a0 For God to hear and act on our prayers, we must have a relationship with Him that is based on His grace and faith.\u00a0 To pray \u201cOur Father\u201d, God must be our spiritual father.\u00a0 And regardless of what some people say, not everyone is a child of God.\u00a0 It is only those who have confessed their sin, trusted in God\u2019s grace through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save them, that are truly God\u2019s children.\u00a0 <strong>Second, praying in faith means we are praying the Word of God<\/strong>.\u00a0 Many people say, I don\u2019t know what the will of God for me is, while never opening their Bible.\u00a0 The Bible is the mind, heart, and will of God.\u00a0 Every time we open the Word, we should be praying through what we are reading.\u00a0How do you do that?\u00a0 To pray the Word of God when you read simply ask yourself a few questions.\u00a0 First, what do I learn about God from reading this verse of this passage.\u00a0 Praise Him for who He is.\u00a0 Second, is there any sin that God is pointing out in my life through this verse or passage?\u00a0 Is there something that you should be doing that you aren\u2019t?\u00a0 Is there something you are doing that you shouldn\u2019t be?\u00a0 Confess it.\u00a0 Finally, ask for God to help you be obedient to His Word.\u00a0 What is that passage telling you to do in order to glorify God and point others to Him?\u00a0 Let me demonstrate it for you very quickly using our passage.\u00a0 In this passage we learn that Jesus understands what we go through, because He went through it in that He was hungry.\u00a0 We learn that God takes sin seriously, He is a Judge, but He also offers grace and forgiveness to those who seek it.\u00a0 Are we guilty of living a life that doesn\u2019t honor God, are we not intentional about our spiritual growth?\u00a0 Finally, ask the Lord to help you grow in your faith and for our church to be a place known for prayer, forgiveness, and a place where people can find hope.\u00a0 <strong>Finally, praying in faith means praying according to the will of God<\/strong>.\u00a0 This again is connected to the previous point. \u00a0To pray according to God\u2019s will means we must be in God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 We must ask God, how are you asking me to apply this text to my life?\u00a0 Praying in faith doesn\u2019t mean that God will give us everything we ask Him for.\u00a0 But when we pray in faith, we are trusting not only in His power to give us what we are asking for, but we are also trusting in His wisdom to give us what we need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Justin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In yesterday&#8217;s message from our series in the Gospel of Mark, we spoke about praying in faith and what exactly does that mean? \u00a0Since yesterday, several people have reached out because that part wasn&#8217;t included completely in the sermon notes &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/praying-in-faith\/\">Read More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}