Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Mark

[Basil]

So in Mark 11:24 it says :

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

So let's say I have a crush on a girl and if I pray to the lord will I get it. Or is it more important to say God knows what's best for me and he will only do what's the best and I should just put my faith in him whether I get this girl or not?

[jimwalton]

Jesus spoke in a context. People get into interpretive trouble when they ignore the context. Here in Mark this saying is couched in the story of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple—an indictment of religious people on false expectations and false practices. It's true that people want the easy path and the one where they get what they want, but that doesn't mean Jesus’s statement is reckless and false. Jesus is talking about a bona fide relationship with God that results in spiritual harmony, and at the same time decrying religious practices for the benefit of self. It’s only in that context, then, that people mislead themselves with false hopes based on selfish requests, luring themselves into deceit.

Prayer, according to Jesus, is not putting oneself in charge and getting whatever you ask for. Instead, Jesus is talking about a harmony with God that puts one in a position of being a participant with what God is doing, which makes the impossible possible. The necessary condition of his teaching is a relationship with God, not just religious practice. What makes prayer vital is its harmony with God, not just wishful optimism.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Sounds like you kinda already know the answer Jesus is not talking about using prayer to get what you want, but rather using prayer to discover what GOD wants, and aligning yourself to that. A faithful person would not pray for an impossibility for selfish reasons. If they pray for “the mountain to move”, it’s because God has led them to know that’s what God wants, so they pray for that to happen because that’s already what God is pointing to.

As for the girl: rather than pray she suddenly likes you, you should pray that God makes into the kind of person who is likable. Then, if she does like you, it’s for a good reason. And if she does not end up liking you, you know it wasn’t a good match up anyways. Trust me: you want the person who likes you to like you because you’re like Jesus.