Mid-Week Devotional: Our Great Helper

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything

against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father

in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Mark 11:24-25

"Our Great Helper"

While searching for a book I wanted to buy recently,

I heard a pleasant voice ask, "May I help you?"

Once I described the book, we soon found it.

I left the store with my requested treasure happily

tucked under my arm, and I thought,

"I wonder how often God asks me this same question,

but I'm too busy to hear?"

Maybe He's asking if there are any mountains in our lives

that we need help in moving today-

mountains of disappointment, heartache, or fear.

Sometimes these mountains can loom so large before us

that we are no longer able to see Jesus.

He gives us His pattern for prayer and sums up all we

will ever need to know about it.

The pattern is this: pray, ask, believe, forgive.

To pray is a supernatural way of getting to know a

supernatural God. When we pray, God makes us His partners!

He chooses us to become part of His ministry here on earth.

When Jesus inquires, "May I help you?" He wants us to respond

in a childlike trust. He wants us to ask.  Sometimes, He answers

in a miraculous way, but most of the time He simply opens our 

spiritual eyes and shows us what we can do to bring about the answer.

Then He gives us the ability to do it.

"I have strength for all things through

 Christ Who empowers me.

I am ready for anything, and equal to anything

through Him Who infuses inner strength in me;

I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency."

Philippians 4:13

To believe is to give God the right to answer our prayers in the

way He sees best. Remember, Jesus never gave a sermon on unanswered

prayer because, from His viewpoint, all prayers are answered.

When we learn to believe God, we find our attention is no

longer on our mountain. It becomes focused instead on Jesus,

Who alone is worthy of our trust.

When we forgive, we open a channel to God.

Jesus asks us to for give others "so that your Father in heaven 

may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:25).

God longs for us to live in the joy of walking by faith-

praying, asking, believing, forgiving.

When we do, we're no longer sitting alone in

the shadow of the mountain.

"Our Great Helper"

Written by Hope McDonald