Mark 11:24 … Believing to Receive (04/13/17)
“Whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe you are receiving it & it will be yours.”
~ Jesus (Mark 11:24)
Most similar verses in the Gospels have the phrase “in my name” attached to them (see John 14:13-14, Matthew 18:20, Matthew 21:22, Luke 11:9 et al) – intimating that the prayer in question must be a selfless one to be “heard” and thereafter fulfilled; that the prayer must resonate with the all-Loving nature of the message of Jesus’ ministry and the name of Christ himself – “Emmanuel”, a name which means “God is within us” (see Matthew 1:23) … That having been said, it is important to note that this phrase is missing here – and that we are dealing with the Gospel of Mark as well; the original Gospel – the Gospel that was penned first, and the Gospel from which Matthew & Luke took most of their subsequent inspiration.
And so it is that we look to the Gospel of Mark itself to see how its author felt about prayer – seeing first & foremost the admonition of Jesus read in Mark 11:25, and admonition which noted that “whenever you stand praying, first forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” As such, we see that praying for Jesus is not a selfish tool at all, but rather a method of seeking atonement for past wrongs …
The second telling mention of prayer in Mark comes near the end of that Gospel, when we see Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to his arrest and crucifixion. And here, in his time of greatest distress and greatest need, do we see him praying for himself? Do we see him begging God for pleasure or comfort or the avoidance of pain or the dismissal of his imminent suffering? No … We see him acknowledge that God could indeed have given him these things (“for you all things are possible”) and we see him acknowledge that he was indeed sorely tempted to ask for the same (“remove this cup from me”), and yet immediately thereafter we see Jesus reaffirm his resolve to do God’s will, not fulfill his own wishes (“yet not my will, but thine be done” – see Mark 14:36) …
And this is how we are to pray as well; not to selfishly envision wealth or health or pleasure or ease and then ask for the same to be granted for ourselves, but rather to envision serving those in need and relieving the suffering of the downtrodden, and then to ask that these visions be fulfilled instead.
As such, all proponents of the “The Prosperity Gospel” or “The Law of Abundance” should beware when using this verse to selfishly manifest advantages of opulence or ease – first and foremost because doing so directly denies The Way of Christ (a Way that knows only service for God’s Will, never being served by the same – see Mark 10:45 et al), but also because “beaming” want into the Universe is actually “beaming” a lack of what is desired – and the Universe will indeed respond accordingly; with either corresponding impoverishment &/or with the granting of what is desired; an attainment that is always coupled with the corresponding suffering that accrues once what has been attained is inevitably lost, is inevitably taken, or inevitably breaks, dissolves, and fades away.
;