I'll Give You Anything

As I continuously chew on the idea of what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus I'm consistently reminded of just how important it is to be immersed in the Word. Simply put, it's our manual for life. How can I expect to truthfully and honestly follow Christ with dignity if I'm not constantly checking myself against His Word? My thoughts, words, and actions need to be in line with what Scripture has to say in order for my life to legitimately reflect the light of Christ in the world, and when they don't, it's Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that humbles me to admit those inconsistencies and further study how to live a life as free of those mistakes as possible. I realize as I say this that it sounds much easier than it is. I'll be the first to admit that studying God's Word is neither easy nor always my first choice of what I do with my free time. Let's face it, there are many passages that are hard to grapple with (and I'm not just talking about things that seem outdated from the Old Testament or things that, from our understanding, appear contrary to a loving and merciful God). Much of what Jesus says straight up contradicts the lives many "Christians" are living today, myself included.

Some of the passages I've been trying to understand better lately (and all my life, really) are those with the "ask and you shall receive" message to them. These two passages in particular have given me a lot to think about this week:

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
Mark 11:22-24

"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
John 14:12-14

Wow. That's powerful stuff right there. Jesus is openly telling his disciples that not only will they be able to do the things that they've seen Jesus do, but even greater things?! He basically says, "ask me whatever you want and I'll do it for you." What more assurance do we need as Christians? Christ empowers us to do amazing things and, in those times we're not feeling so "powerful," He says we can ask Him and He'll do them for us. That's the truth of the Scripture. That's why we're able to say we can do all things through Christ Jesus who gives us strength. And yet, I think most of us would hesitate here. Yes, this is what God's Word says and, yes, we believe it, but most, if not all, of us have never cast a mountain into the sea. In fact, most of us have probably never even tried to. It seems so out of the realm of possibility. But here it is! Jesus says we can do it and if we're Christians we believe in Jesus and what He says, right? As with most things in life, I think there's more at work here, though. Let's look at the passages one at a time.

Starting with the Mark passage, I think (at least in my own life) people often get caught up in the visual Jesus uses. In fact, when I hear this verse quoted it's generally done like this: "Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' it will be done for them." It certainly sounds like the passage above. It's the main gist at least, right? Wrong. I think this is a prime example of how easily we can distort the Truth of Scripture, even when we don't intend to. People today are boggled at the thought of having the power to throw the mountain in the sea. Either we are in awe at the thought of being able to do it, or we assume it can't really be done. In either case we get caught up in the visual and tend to stop there. But the most important parts of the passage are before and after the mountain and the sea. Jesus begins, "Have faith in God," and after the visual He says, "and [anyone who] does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen..." The main point of this passage isn't about being able to do astounding things. Truthfully, I don't think it really has anything to do with that. The main point in this passage is trusting and having faith in God. It's about believing in the deepest recesses of our beings that God is, without a doubt, exactly who He says He is and He will do exactly what He says he will. But what about the last verse? I think it's only when we grasp the kind of trust in God Jesus is talking about here that the last verse really makes sense. Only when we truly, without a doubt trust God will we be able to believe we have received whatever we pray for as we pray for it. When we read this passage and pray and don't receive what we pray for I think it says more about our belief than it does about God's power to deliver. Do we sincerely believe with every fiber of our being that God can and will take care of us better than we can? We say we do, but the fact that we worry and plan and try to safeguard our lives tells a different story. I think if we truly, fully, and honestly trusted God with all that we are our lives would look a lot different. Now let me make one thing clear. I am not for a second saying that the only reason prayer "isn't answered" is because we don't believe "hard enough." I think that's a terrible misconception that can seriously damage a person's ability to walk in faith. In fact, I don't think there are prayers that go unanswered. On the contrary, I think our prayers are more often than not answered in ways that we don't necessarily want or expect and we just assume that means they aren't answered at all. Belief is only part of the equation here. Praying into God's will is the other major aspect and I think the John passage addresses this well.

I think this John passage has the ability to instill a lot of doubt into our lives if we misinterpret it (and I think we misinterpret it a lot). Just like we get caught up in the mountain and sea image from the Mark passage I think many people get stuck on the last line of the John passage. "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Hot dang! See how easily this could be skewed? A misinterpretation of this verse alone pretty much sums up where we get the prosperity gospel from. On it's own this one verse really does make it seem like Jesus is a glorified magician. "Ask me whatever you want and I will grant it for you." But, as a Bible teacher at Holland Christian High School often says, "A text without a context is a pretext for trouble." If we single out this one verse we are bound to be led astray. Up until this point, Jesus has been teaching the disciples, showing them miracles, and living life with them in order to help them understand who He is and believe He is who He says He is. Everything Jesus says and does is purposefully meant to point people back to the Father. So it should come as no surprise that immediately before Jesus promises to do whatever we pray in His name He says, "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Jesus is the Son of God and all that He thinks, says, and does is for the purpose of glorifying His Father. So then, what does that mean when we pray for things in Jesus' name and they don't happen the way we ask them to? Now I know this is a stretch seeming as humanity tends to be so perfect all the time (that's sarcasm, by the way), but perhaps what we ask for in prayer doesn't always glorify God or, at most, doesn't glorify Him to the extent it could or should. And honestly, how could it? We are broken, sinful, corrupt human beings. Our natural tendencies are to lean toward that which preserves us and what makes us comfortable. Even prayers that seem selfless can be selfish when we step outside our own understanding of how the world works. When we pray for healing for a loved one suffering from cancer and we are answered with that person's death, it's easy for us to assume God ignored our prayer, but perhaps we just don't fully understand how perfectly God did answer that prayer. Not only is that person no longer suffering from an incurable disease anymore, but they have been healed in a way none of us on earth have ever or will ever experience until Jesus returns. "Tyler, are you saying that my loved one's death was more glorifying to God than them being healed here on earth?" Yes, maybe. I won't for a second claim to fully grasp or understand how or why God does what He does the way He does it. But I will suggest maybe, just maybe, God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We can't begin to fathom the ripple effect a single event can have in this world the way God does. God sees the end that we do not and the best we can do is trust that whatever happens happens so that the Father is glorified in the best way possible. I don't think that means we shouldn't pray for healing or deliverance from sinful habits or whatever we think the best outcome is for a given situation. We don't know God's will to the full extent. As long as we're not blatantly defying God's will as we understand it in our prayers I think God encourages us to pray for what we think is best and most glorifying to Him. We just need to be prepared that we will be wrong sometimes because we are not God. So, when we ask for things in Jesus' name, we need to humbly and honestly ask ourselves if we're asking out of selfish ambitions or if we're asking for the sake of the Father's name being glorified. When we fully trust in God to be who He says He is and we actively seek to pray into His will amazing things can and do happen.

Let me leave you with a recent example from here at Beautiful Gate. Last week we all witnessed a miracle. There are a few special needs children at BG and, ever since I've been here, there has been one child who has had a feeding tube. She was completely unable to swallow any solid food and she completely relied on the tube for all her nourishment. It was an uncomfortable situation for her, made evident in the fact that she often ripped the tube out if left unattended for more than a minute. Over the last month, though, she's made incredible progress. She's learned to swallow solid foods and is a lot physically stronger in most parts of her body. Before long her tube was essentially obsolete as she was eating all her food orally. So, last week many of us, as a staff and team of volunteers, began fasting and praying on her behalf, asking God to complete the healing He'd already obviously begun in her. We prayed that at her next appointment she could have the tube removed once and for all. On Monday afternoon she returned from the appointment and all of us were ecstatic to see her beautiful face in all it's glory - without a feeding tube! God is good. He is faithful. He hears our prayers. Every day I'm learning more and more to trust that He is exactly who He says He is. As I allow my will to be conformed to His I'm finding that my eyes are being opened to see the miraculous in both the mundane and the extraordinary. I will never fully understand God's ways, but I know, without a doubt, that I can pray for my Father's will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven, and it will be.