Asking with faith

DEVOTION

GENESIS

ASKING WITH FAITH

Gen 24:10-16

10 Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and left, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. 11 He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. 12 Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too' — let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master." 15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor. 16 The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever lain with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

NIV

It is somewhat strange this servant should be praying to the God of his master, rather than to his God. Was not the Lord God his God? Why would he only address him as God of his master? Perhaps the reason is because he is not praying for himself as much as he is praying for or on behalf of his master, Abraham. He is reminding God of his covenant with Abraham and that this is a journey all about fulfilling his promise, his covenant with Abraham by bringing about a wife for Isaac the will begin the process of making descendants as numerous as the stars, or grains of sand upon the beach and that all the nations will be blessed through him. This servant asks for God to show kindness to his master Abraham. Praying for his master is the task as hand. He wants the Lord to give him success for the sake of his master. This is not just a generic prayer for success, but with specific conditions, almost as the same Gideon did with his fleece. He prayed that a girl, the right girl would come, give him a drink and offer without asking to water his camels as well and that this girl would be from the family of Abraham. He could not have asked with any more conditions. This certainly gives us some insight as to how we should pray. Are our prayers too general, too generic, lacking the specifics because perhaps we lack the needed faith? Maybe we fear that God will not answer our prayer for the specifics or that we are praying with the wrong motive. We will see God answered this servant’s prayers right down to the minute detail. Yet he was praying for his success for the sake of his master. Still it is a lesson to learn about faith in our God and knowing exactly what we need and believing he will answer our prayers. We certainly have some experience with God’s leading in his answering prayer. We certainly have some experience of his divine healing as a result of that specific prayer. We know he is near at all times and it is his desire to bless us in every way, as he did with Abraham. God does not want us to live outside his blessings. First and foremost his blessing of Jesus Christ for our redemption and forgiveness of sin. But also in every way. God desires to answer our prayers. But we do need to prayer with faith, believing, first of all, God hears us and he will answer us.

Prov 15:29

29 The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

NIV

There is no question God hears our prayers because we are in Christ, who is our righteousness. We are righteous because of Christ, therefore God hears our prayer.

1 John 5:13-15

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.

NIV

Can we have any doubt that God hears us and that he answers us? We also know without doubt as long as we pray in accordance to his will he will answer, yes. That is the final clue. We need to pray in accordance with his will. This servant was praying for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, which certainly was his will. But he also was very specific as to how he wanted God to answer. We need to know the will of God and we certainly can know that simply by reading all of his word. We know we should not pray so that we can have more to just spend on ourselves.

James 4:1-3

4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have , because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

NIV

It is not that God desires us to go without, but we should not be praying just to have because we want it for ourselves. If we are servants of the Most High God, as this man was a servant of Abraham, and prayed for his master’s success, should we not pray for the success of our master? Should we not be praying for God’s will to be accomplished in both our lives as well as those lives we encounter, specifically the lives of our family members? Yes, we can pray for healing in our body. Yes, we can pray for the leading of the Spirit in our lives. Yes, we can pray for success in our witness for him. Yes, we can pray for his provision, both spiritually and materially all because he promised. It appears this servant had no doubts about the God of his master Abraham.

Matt 21:21-22

21 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt , not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." 

NIV

Believe, don’t doubt, ask and believe, faith means believing without doubt. Doubt comes not from God, but from either the enemy of our soul, or from within our own being. Ask with faith, ask.