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A Word From Pastor Matt

A Word from Our Pastor

I preside over a grief support group that meets once a month. Most of the people in this group have lost a loved one and are mourning that loss. All of us can relate to praying over a terminally sick family member. I used to meditate on Mark 11:24:

Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 

It always gave me hope, but when the loved one dies after fervently praying for their recovery, we are grief-stricken and realize that our prayers had not been granted. We feel like we had failed. Surely if I had been more faithful, God would have healed my wife, or my husband, or my son.

For years I have wrestled with this verse. The mix of past and future tenses is puzzling. I believe prayer changes things, but this passage teaches me that our prayers are never just about the future. Praying conforms us to God’s will in the present. We are comforted in this transformation by looking to God’s faithfulness in the past. Further, like the disciples in Acts 12, sometimes we don’t immediately recognize the answer to our prayers.

I have mourned the loss of family members, but I completely understand and appreciate the profound ways God answers my prayers — ways so amazing that I don’t always understand them. I have come to accept that God doesn’t require my understanding, just my steadfast, faithful confidence in His love for me.