Magnificent Prayer #78
Magnificent Prayer #78
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 11:39–12:1
In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have a long list of benefits which faith brings to its possessors: justification, deliverance, fruitfulness, endurance, victory over enemies, courage, strength, and even resurrection from the dead. And everything that is attributed to faith might, with equal truth, be attributed to prayer, for faith and true prayer are like two sides of the same coin. They are inseparable.
Men may, and often do, pray without faith (though this is not true prayer), but it is not thinkable that men should have faith and not pray. The biblical formula is “the prayer of faith.” Prayer and faith are here bound together by the little preposition of, and what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Faith is only genuine as it eventuates into prayer.
A. W. TOZER
Pray About It: Prayer and faith are twins that leapfrog us on toward God’s will. Prayer begets faith. Faith begets prayer. And thus it goes. If your faith is small, pray. If your prayers are feeble, have faith. The men and women of Hebrews 11 are clouds of witnesses who bear testimony that faith works. They weren’t superhuman: They were just like us. Their virtue was that they knew God and believed Him. You too can have that kind of faith, and maybe someday your name may be on God’s honor roll of faith.
The possibilities of prayer are the possibilities of faith. Prayer and faith are Siamese twins. One heart animates them both. Faith is always praying. Prayer is always believing.
E. M. BOUNDS
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