Edward Poller
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24) What a tremendous promise! But it is not passively given, nor is it given to just anyone. This verse has its beginning in verse 22 which says..."Have faith in God." Then follows, after the example to faith, with the conditions of faith..."and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what He says will happen, it will be done for him." This is the challenge to trust God with all of our hearts.
What kind of attitude do you embrace when you come before His throne of grace? Paul tells us how to come to Him, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help us in our time of need". (Hebrews 4:16) God has given us this inconceivable avenue of approach into His very presence. He wants us to come without the "baggage" of our experiences, convictions, creeds, emotions, or traditions, with nothing hindering our communion with HIM...and just abandon our hearts in simple, unwavering faith in God alone.
We should come fearlessly, boldly, and confidently to appropriate what He has provided for us. We are not to lean on anything within ourselves, but cast ourselves upon His grace, wherever God has placed us or the circumstances that are before us. (Matthew 11:30) Habakkuk 3:17-19 illustrates what "abandoned faith in our Almighty God" really means. Look what Habakkuk said as he encountered circumstances we know nothing about. "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign God is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go to the heights."
Everything gone, nothing to lean on, no one to console him...this mighty man of God brings "his nothingness" before God and places "unutterable trust" in the ONE who has promised..." My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). Wow! That's "abandoned faith" in our faithful all-sufficient God! Faith must be tried before it becomes a reality. We need to turn our "professed faith" into "experimental faith"...our "head faith" into a "personal possession."
Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, (John 15:5) where HE has free and full access in every phase of our life, (Acts 17:28) and directs our life to unrelenting confident trust in GOD ALONE. We trust in the holy unchanging character of God. (Nahum 1:7; 1 John 4:9; Jeremiah 31:3)
Our faith is not measured by "who we are, what we have, or the ability we possess." Rather, it is IN WHOM we place our faith! (*John 14:1) Faith is deliberate commitment to Jesus Christ when we see no way, (Daniel 3:16-18) when we encounter the devastating circumstances of life, (Hebrews 11:8,17) and we dare to cut the shorelines and launch out into the deep uncharted waters... (Hebrews 11:23-24) that we may see "the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep" (Exodus 14:21)
Let God take the broken pieces of your life and make something beautiful out of them. (Ruth 4:16-17) A.W.Tozer wrote, "Faith hears the inaudible... sees the invisible... believes the incredible... and receives the impossible!" (Hebrews 11:1; Ephesians 3:20-21) May this be your experience as you dare to trust Him alone!
What kind of attitude do you embrace when you come before His throne of grace? Paul tells us how to come to Him, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help us in our time of need". (Hebrews 4:16) God has given us this inconceivable avenue of approach into His very presence. He wants us to come without the "baggage" of our experiences, convictions, creeds, emotions, or traditions, with nothing hindering our communion with HIM...and just abandon our hearts in simple, unwavering faith in God alone.
We should come fearlessly, boldly, and confidently to appropriate what He has provided for us. We are not to lean on anything within ourselves, but cast ourselves upon His grace, wherever God has placed us or the circumstances that are before us. (Matthew 11:30) Habakkuk 3:17-19 illustrates what "abandoned faith in our Almighty God" really means. Look what Habakkuk said as he encountered circumstances we know nothing about. "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign God is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go to the heights."
Everything gone, nothing to lean on, no one to console him...this mighty man of God brings "his nothingness" before God and places "unutterable trust" in the ONE who has promised..." My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). Wow! That's "abandoned faith" in our faithful all-sufficient God! Faith must be tried before it becomes a reality. We need to turn our "professed faith" into "experimental faith"...our "head faith" into a "personal possession."
Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, (John 15:5) where HE has free and full access in every phase of our life, (Acts 17:28) and directs our life to unrelenting confident trust in GOD ALONE. We trust in the holy unchanging character of God. (Nahum 1:7; 1 John 4:9; Jeremiah 31:3)
Our faith is not measured by "who we are, what we have, or the ability we possess." Rather, it is IN WHOM we place our faith! (*John 14:1) Faith is deliberate commitment to Jesus Christ when we see no way, (Daniel 3:16-18) when we encounter the devastating circumstances of life, (Hebrews 11:8,17) and we dare to cut the shorelines and launch out into the deep uncharted waters... (Hebrews 11:23-24) that we may see "the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep" (Exodus 14:21)
Let God take the broken pieces of your life and make something beautiful out of them. (Ruth 4:16-17) A.W.Tozer wrote, "Faith hears the inaudible... sees the invisible... believes the incredible... and receives the impossible!" (Hebrews 11:1; Ephesians 3:20-21) May this be your experience as you dare to trust Him alone!
