What was your favorite game as a kid? Did you ever make one up on the spot with your friends or siblings? Were you ever a cowboy? An astronaut? A princess? I’m willing to bet that the answer is yes. All of us have, at one time or another, had a great time on account of our imaginations. What made these games so much fun though, is that as a kid you believed they were true. You probably never sat around with your friends and said, “Let’s pretend we’re pirates but keep an objective hold on reality!” No. “Let’s be pirates.” “Let’s be cowboys.” “Let’s be mom.”
When was the last time you really believed something unbelievable? When were you really convinced that you had the power to change things? Has it been a while? For most of us, the answer is probably yes. That’s not the way it should be though. Jesus says that is exactly how we should be when we pray. We should use our imaginations. By this I do not mean that we should pretend stuff will happen. Rather, we need to believe the truth of what we pray for. In chapter 11 of Mark Jesus tells Peter, “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” Pretty cool huh?
Elsewhere in the Bible Jesus says that all of his followers should have “faith like a child”. (Also a great Jars of Clay song by the way.) What does that mean? Get creative! Use your imagination! Don’t pray safe! When was the last time you prayed for a mountain without any doubt in your heart?
By Aaron Blackwell
