by Trent (originally posted on June 29, 2006
I have prayed for healing from an ailment from which I suffered. Have you?
It wasn't a life threatening ailment; just something irksome that I would rather do without. So, I asked for physical healing in prayer one day. It went something like this: "Please heal me from this." Nothing special, God knows what you mean, when you pray ... flowery words are just goofy. I usually just shoot from the hip, and trust that God knows the heart regardless of the words used.
So, the next day ... the ailment flared-up. Again and again, for months and months. At first I used the flare-ups to remind me to pray again for deliverance. Then I realized, God heard me the first time. He didn't need the reminder. On the first request, God understood. Every time I said "please" again and again, was another time that I was demonstrating my unbelief that God really had this in His hands.
I often treat prayers like juggling. I throw things up to God, and when it comes back down, I catch it and throw it back up. But, faith requires trust and understanding. Faith and doubt do not mix. What I should be doing is tossing it up, and if it comes back down just let it. I don't need to pick it up again and toss it back up to God. I gave it to Him, and He can come take it when He wants to.
Isn't it true that you could sign over your house and cars to me today, and that I could come take them from you at any time? Well, if I wait 1 year or 1 day, those things still belong to me. Provided that I wait and 4 months go by ... don't comfort yourself. I'll come and get them when I want. They belong to me, and I can decide when to take them from you. Signing them over to me again and again only would demonstrate that you distrusted the first process of signing them over to me.
In Bible college, a saint named Bob Hopkins came as a guest speaker. Bob has since gone to be with the Lord, but he had a wonderfully simple message about faith. I can sum it up in one phrase: "'Thank you' is the language of faith." The implied corollary was "'Please' is the language of mistrust."
I can't say "please" without expressing an unbelief or doubt that something has occurred.
I can't say "thank you" without trusting and understanding that something has occurred.
I was stuck in a rut of unbelief, that was demonstrated by my daily request for healing. I did not believe that God took it the first time. I was saying "please" for something for which I should be saying "thank you." So, I repented of my unbelief one day.
Now, I had a new approach. Whenever a flare-up occurred, I quit asking for deliverance. Instead, I simply exercised faith, and used the occasion of the sickness to say "thank you." My prayers went something like this: "Thank you, that you have heard my prayers and You have this ailment in Your hands. Its not mine any longer, even though You haven't taken it away yet. I'm grateful that You will take this sickness when you are ready to take it."
He was ready to take the ailment soon afterward. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks longer, and the sickness was gone. I was delivered by God, through a friend that suggested a remedy.
Maybe you are asking for something over and over, too. May I suggest, that if God did not hear the first request, then we are all in a lot of trouble. I am witnessing to the fact that God does hear us the first time you ask.
There are many things that I used to ask over and over for ... forgiveness is one of the main ones. I no longer ask even for forgiveness. God heard me the first time, and I will exercise my faith by saying "thank you" for the things for which I used to say "please."
As for they whom you love and also hate, control your anger. Careful, I say to you. Hate that which is against God...do not hate them who were created by God. For He is rich in mercy and forgiveness. ~ Jesus [Letters from God and His Christ - Volume1 - The Servants of God Have Been Sent Out to Blow Their Trumpets to the Nations...Hear Them for the Spirit Dwells Within Them]