I do a lot of our banking on line now. I try to check it each day to insure all is well, and track the outgoing bill payments along with incoming transactions.
A few weeks ago, I logged into our account where a “pending” notice popped up for a direct deposited check that was coming in. I was happy to see that one, as it was a few days late.
Now the funds were not actually in my account yet, so I did not have access to them, but I could see that they would be posted shortly.
As I mentally checked it off of my list, the Lord showed me something about that “pending transaction” in relation to prayer.
Jesus taught a lot about prayer, which is our conversation with our Heavenly Father.
When I was a child I thought of prayer as a one sided transaction. I would speak to God and give my request, and if I did not see an immediate answer I assumed He was too busy, or the answer was “No.”
Now, as I have grown in my relationship with Him through His word, I have come to the understanding that our prayer in it’s simplest form is intimacy with our Heavenly Father. My prayer life is simply a response to what He has already provided us by grace. I start out thanking Him for already providing an answer to my question, and provision for any need.
I once heard a Pastor say, “Christians don’t have needs, they have a knowledge problem.”
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32
If you read in Mark Chapter 11 Jesus cursed a fig tree because it boasted that it had figs by having leaves, yet when they drew close they realized that it had no figs. It was a perversion of how God/Jesus created it. So Jesus cursed it to death. But it did not visible wither at that moment, it wasn’t until the next day that the disciples walked by with Jesus and were astonished that the full grown tree had withered and died.
So Jesus used this to teach them (and future Believers) about prayer.
“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Mark 11:22-24
Likewise, when we believe that we have received what we have asked for, when we pray according to His word, we can have faith that we have received it.
In a sense, it is similar to that “pending transaction,” even though the funds had not dropped into my account yet, where I could physically draw from them, it was about to.
When we pray, the prayer has been answered (because all of God’s promises are “yes and Amen” in Christ. 2 Cor. 1:20), meaning that if Christ paid for it, we can receive it.
In the Spiritual realm, God has enabled us to see His promises come to pass with our spiritual eyes/word of God/imagination before it comes to pass in the physical realm.
You know, the whole Old Testament was a like a pending transaction that had not taken place yet, but was still to come.
But thru the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, His sacrificial death, and resurrection- the pending transaction between God and man was completed. We are not waiting for God to supply one more need, it is finished!
Transaction complete- just believe and receive.
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Luke 2:14
Contact Brenda Groves at: bkgroves1996@yahoo.com
