Persistency In Faith and Prayer

I know there is power in prayer. If you've read emails and blogs I sent from lockup last year until now, I've laid out my struggles with prayer, doubt and what it has been like navigating through those struggles while walking in the lowest valley. God faithfully provided then and continues to do so. Along the way, I have heard from so many people  "I'm praying for you!" or "(Insert people or organization) are praying for you!" 

As encouraging as those thoughtful comments are, I'm sure there's somebody reading this that has dealt with conflicting emotions when they hear them from friends while going through a hard time. Comfort should be the first feeling that comes but for me usually that isn't the first reaction. My thoughts tend to go toward something more along the lines of: 

"that's nice thank you, but this is my problem not yours so I've got to work this out in my own prayer life" 

"because I haven't gotten what I'm praying for yet, there must be something I’ve got to fix" 

"because this is my problem, nobody's going to pray for it like me or my family" 

Now, I'm not saying those thoughts are right, I'm just saying they've popped in my head and I can't be the only one that unintentionally minimizes one of the most powerful things the Body of Christ has to offer and that’s prayer from other believers. 

This leads me to Mark 8:22-25 where Jesus restores sight to a blind man and what God laid on my heart while reading this passage.

"v22 “And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

‭‭The two words in these verses that got my attention were “some people”. Nowhere in the passage talks about the blind man’s faith. It said “some people” brought the blind man to Jesus. I think it really speaks to the group of people who knew Jesus could heal him. The blind man may have believed, but it says a lot more to me about the faith of the other believers. The man may have believed Jesus could heal him, but if he didn’t, it only took the faith of the other believers bringing him to Jesus to lead him to the miracle. He needed someone to get him there. But, if the blind man did have any doubts, I imagine receiving partial sight gave him the extra faith he needed just before Jesus completely restores his vision. 

What God brought to me through this passage was to never underestimate the power of other believers bringing a request to God on my behalf. Don't ever let that be minimized by the enemy. The faith of “some people” bringing their requests to Jesus was enough for Jesus to deliver healing to a blind man.

Another interesting point that stood out to me in this passage is sometimes answered prayer may look different than what's expected. They asked Jesus to touch him, and instead Jesus put spit in his eyes. The blind man probably didn’t know what to think when Jesus used spit to heal him. It was an answered prayer but I bet it looked really different than what they were expecting.

Don't stop short on your prayers. It may just be that extra bit of faith Jesus is waiting on to fully restore. After getting only part of his sight back, Jesus fully restored the blind man’s sight. This leads me to believe the blind man may have been skeptical to begin with but after having part of his sight restored by Jesus, his faith was strengthened and so was his sight.

Another example of Jesus not acting how you'd expect Him to is shown in Matthew 15:21-28:

"Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Caanan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, " Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon possessed." But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us." But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then she came and worshipped Him saying, "Lord help me!" But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And she said, "Yes Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire!" And her daughter was healed instantly." 

Bouncing off the blind man passage and what faith in Jesus can do, this woman got the cold shoulder from Jesus, the disciples were urging Him to make her leave and Jesus continued to reject her pleas. But, through her persistence, she passed what was obviously a test of her faith. I can imagine after the disciples urged Jesus to make her leave and then heard his response to her the second time she pleaded with Him, the disciples probably looked pretty cocky at how Jesus was treating her. But, I believe Jesus fully intended to heal the woman’s daughter all along.

I can picture Jesus' face all serious until a smile flowed out at how pleased He was in her faith despite all opposition. She got silence, harsh comments from the peanut gallery, two remarks from Jesus that didn't sound good and she was still persistent. Her humble faith that He would heal her Daughter led her to receiving exactly what she was begging Him for. 

If that's not ammo to keep praying through what seems like silence, opposition from those watching, and what we might understand as continuous “no's” from God then I don't know what is. Jesus also gave the more commonly known parable of the persistent widow, but the encounter of this woman that approached Jesus despite the prejudices against Canaanite’s at the time, with all cards stacked against her, is more encouraging to me personally, than the parable of the persistent widow. The lesson is the same though, be persistent in faith and prayer. 

Sometimes what we ask God for gets answered in a much different way than we expected, and sometimes like this woman from Canaan, God expects us to push past the silence in our prayers, past the groups of people full of judgement and be persistent with Him. He wants us to exercise just how much we know He is able even if that means taking what looks like a “no”and telling Him how we know He can do it anyway.

Maybe He's testing us to see if we’ll put feet to our faith, or if we’ll give up at first resistance.