Topic: Faith Is Thanking God in Advance [RICK WARREN Devotional 21 June 2021]
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Faith Is Thanking God in Advance
“When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for.”
Mark 11:24 (GNT)Faith is not just believing God can do something. Faith is not just hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance.
Jesus said, “When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).
You say, “Wait a minute! I’ve got to thank God in advance before I get it in order to get it?” Yes. If you thank God after you’ve got it, that’s gratitude. When you thank him in advance, that’s faith.
Gratitude is good and right. But your goal should be to become a person of deeper faith. To do that, you have to thank God in advance.
If I handed you a check right now for a thousand dollars, would you wait until you cashed it to thank me? No! You’d thank me right now. But the money wouldn’t be yours until you actually cashed it, because that check is really a promise. When I gave you that check, you’d say, “Thank you, Rick.” You’d believe that I was credible and that I had enough money in the bank to cover that check for a thousand dollars.
In the same way, faith is thanking God in advance. It’s believing that what God has promised, he will provide. It’s saying you love God for who he is and not just what he can do for you. It’s showing you trust him to do what he’s said he will do.
One day two blind men followed Jesus to the home where he was staying. They shouted at him to have mercy on them, and Jesus asked them if they had faith that he could heal them. They answered that they believed, and Jesus said, “Because of your faith, it will happen” (Matthew 9:29 NLT).
What I’m saying is this: If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, take the tartar sauce with you. You’re going to have a fish fry tonight!
- Think about some of the common phrases you use in prayer. Do they reflect faith in God?
- How would your perspective and attitude change if you truly believed God was going to provide everything you asked for?
- How would your prayers change if you were truly praying in faith? Take some time to pray now, using language that communicates your faith.