Pray With No Doubting

Several years ago, there were some residents of a drought-stricken community in West Texas, who decided to pray for rain. They contacted a local preacher, and asked him if he would call a special prayer meeting for the purpose of praying for rain.

The preacher gladly agreed, and the date and time were set for the meeting. On the scheduled day, the people all assembled on a hillside to pray to God for rain. When the preacher arrived, he gazed upon the assembly for a moment and said, “Let’s all go home. There’s no sense in praying for rain today, because not a one of you folks brought your umbrella!”

Sometimes, by our words and actions (or inactions), do we not end up telling folks that we really don’t expect an answer from God?

Beloved, if we ever doubt whether or not God will answer our prayers, then our praying becomes utterly futile (James 1:5-8).

When we pray according to the Father’s will (1 John 5:14-15), we need to firmly believe and expect that He will provide exactly what we are praying for (Mark 11:20-24; cf. Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:1-10; John 14:13; John 15:7; John 16:24), otherwise, we might as well “all go home.”

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets