Imagine your prayers being answered

Mark 11:24 (NASB)

Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you. 

Jesus uttered these words two days after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem that today we celebrate as Palm Sunday.  Obviously He had little time left with His disciples before He would be led away to be crucified.  One of his final teachings to them was the vital importance and role of faith in their prayer lives.  It is so important to be bold in your prayer life (Acts 2:42, 4:24, 12:5, 28:28-31). 

You see most pro golfers standing behind the ball in stillness before addressing and hitting the ball.  What are they doing?  They are imagining the shot that they are about to hit.  It’s the power of the mind over matter.  It is getting the mind and the emotion into the game as much as the body.  Imagination is a very powerful tool.  Have you ever been to Disney’s Epcot theme park in Orlando and visited the Imagination! Pavillon?  The emphasis is to allow your imagination to be free and enable your mind to be as creative as possible.  The more you imagine/envision something happening, the more likely that it actually will.  But, you need the discipline of imagination and the will to follow up on your visions.

Faith to believe that whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive requires imagination.  Just like the imagination of a child who believes that anything can happen, that is the kind of faith Jesus was telling His disciples then and telling you right now that you should have.  In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 that you need to convert and become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven.   

Think about it, faith requires imagination although imagination is not faith.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  To have faith that God answers prayer, that you are destined to live forever in heaven, that God loves and cares for you, does that faith not require your imagination.  You cannot see these things of faith, but you can imagine them.

Some days you will have strong imagination to believe; other days your imagination might be weaker, but that does is not the same as having strong or weak faith.  Ron Rolheisser (http://www.jknirp.com/acrisis.htm) wrote about J. R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, being a key person to help C.S. Lewis accept Christianity. After listening to Lewis object to certain aspects of the faith, Tolkien suggested to him that his resistance was not so much a question of belief as it was of imagination: "Your inability to understand stems from a failure of imagination on your part."

You cannot “out-imagine” what God can do when you pray within His will.  Just read Ephesians 3:20 where the word for “think” can be translated as “imagine”.  You cannot put boundaries on God so you cannot falsely think that God is incapable of answering any prayer you ask.  You simply must believe that He can answer and He will although often we do not understand His answer if the answer is not what you were hoping for.

What are you praying and asking about right now?  Do you truly believe that you will receive what you are asking for?  Be sure that your prayers have the right motives (James 4:3).  Be sure that you have asked for your sins to be forgiven and that you harbor no wickedness in your heart (Psalm 66:18).  If you are a married man, be sure that you are treating your wife with honor (I Peter 3:7).  Imagine your prayers being answered.  Even pray for the Lord to strengthen your faith to believe (Mark 9:24) in this promise of Jesus that He will answer your prayers. 

“Don't think God is listening to your prayers? Indeed He is. But He may have higher plans.--Max Lucado

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed.” --Unknown