||
                 ||||||||
                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 24/04/1995, 11/04/1998 .................. MARK 11:24
          [Jesus said] "... Therefore I tell you, whatever you pray and ask,
          believe that you receive, and it shall be for you. ..."
                                  --MARK 11:24 (RLW)  [Also MATTHEW 21:22.]
             A number of Scriptures give various promises of God concerning
          various aspects of prayer:--  MATTHEW 7:7-8; MATTHEW 18:19-20;
          MARK 11:24; JOHN 14:13-14; JOHN 15:7-8; JOHN 15:16-17; JOHN
          16:23-24; 1 JOHN 3:21-24; and 1 JOHN 5:14-15.
             Here, Jesus promises that if we believe we have received, "It
          will be yours".  Received what?  Not necessarily the very thing
          we ask for, but what God knows is best for us in our situation.
          Indeed, as MATTHEW 21:22 records this saying, we can see clearly
          that Jesus' emphasis is on believing in God, first, and then on
          trusting in Him for His reply:-- "And all things, whatsoever ye
          shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (KJV).  Or, as
          Mark has it, we trust God for His reply, because we believe.
             This presents a problem for faith:-- we don't always seem to
          see what we pray for; not right away, nor even after some time.
          MATTHEW deals with this by using the future tense-- "LEMPSESTHE",
          "You will receive"; that is, we pray in faith now, and trust God
          for His promised future reply.  That would satisfy us too, except
          that in MARK, some manuscripts use the aorist tense-- "ELABETE",
          "You received /have received", as though it's already ours now!
          Other manuscripts of MARK, though, use the present tense of this
          verb, "LAMBANETE", "You receive /are receiving"; i.e., we may not
          see God's reply yet, but it is in effect, it is on its way.
             Maybe the Holy Spirit is saying to us, "Whatever you pray and
          ask-- believe that you have received, that you are receiving, and
          that you will receive; and it will be yours".  This mixture of
          past, present and future suits the context in which Christ gave
          this promise:--  the fig tree withers, the mountain will fall,
          forgiveness must come before faith can pray.
             We've seen God answer prayer the same day.  We've asked things
          in prayer, known the answer was, "Yes", and then seen them later.
          Even so, our hearts faint from beholding the mountains before us.
          We do not see what we can do next.  We don't know what God will
          say when we pray.  Yet He who gave us this promise, is faithful.
          Therefore we trust, when we ask, "It shall be for you"!   --RLW
--- QScan/PCB v1.17b / 01-0313
---------------