Where's the Faith?

I don't like to preach, so that is not my intent in this blog, but recently I've been thinking. I know, right?

As I'm writing this my oldest, Warren, is in Buffalo New York at a two-week ministry internship and missions trip. Because of the nature of this program, Warren only get's to call home one time a day for about 30 minutes. If you know Warren, he doesn't normally need 30 minutes. He normally doesn't need 5. However, yesterday (July 7) he called, and we couldn't ever get a word in because he was so excited and fired up about all that he had done and experience.

In short, God has really been working on his heart. Things that we have been praying about for years are now starting to happen. His eyes are being opened and he is experiencing God is a way that he's never known.

The night before he called us his group was in a service called Journey to the Throne. It was all about experiencing God and his presence. Warren was praying for one specific thing during this time, and before the service was over one of the other members of the group had received a word from the Lord and called out that very thing that Warren was praying about. For the first time I think he understood that God really can and does speak to us and he knows us by name.

In addition to this thing that Warren was praying for, he was also praying for our family. He was praying for his grandma Baker and her physical state. He was praying for his grandpa Baker and his sleeping difficulties. He prayed for his mom about a problem she has with one of her hands.

Before he called us, he had tried to call his Grandma and Grandpa to see how they were feeling. You see, Warren had experience God's presence so strongly that he just believed that when he prayed for them, they were going to feel better. He then called us and told us about all of the previous night's events. As we were talking, Deanna had told Warren to keep praying, and specifically to pray for her heart. I won't go into detail, but Deanna has had a lot of heart problems this year. When Warren heard that he said, "Oh, I forgot about your heart. I forgot to pray for your heart."

"Well, just remember to pray for it, because it's really hurting me," Deanna replied.

So Warren (or this new person in Warren's body) said, "Okay, so can I pray for you now." And right there on the phone Warren began to pray for his mom.

Now, being a pastor I have to do that quite often, but for my 16 year old to stop and ask his mom if he can pray for her. I couldn't believe it.

But remember, Warren had been in the presence of God, and he just believed that when he prayed, God was going to move. So my question is, do we really believe that God will answer our prayers. How many times do we try to meet our own needs and end up falling flat on our face. Or how many times do we recite a prayer, but we really have more doubt than faith? James said that when we doubt we should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Even Jesus himself said, "Have faith and don't doubt."

Doubt can bring immediate cancellation to our prayers. Who are we to doubt that the God who created the universe won't listen to His children? We've got to have faith in every situation. The prayer of faith can move mountains.

So I ask you, "Where's the faith?"