Prayers of Unbelief
Whatever is Not from Faith is Sin
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him (God)…”
Hebrews 11:6
“…whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Romans 14:23
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the no-nonsense leader of an elite team of Special Agents who solve crimes associated with the Navy on the hit show NCIS. When one of his agents does something bone-headed, Gibbs often slaps them on the back of the head in a “what were you thinking” kind of gesture. It’s referred to as being “Gibbs Slapped”. Several years ago, I felt a “Gibbs Slap” from God.
One day as I was praying, I said “Lord, be with us today,” a phrase that I had often used in my prayers. As soon as I said it, I sensed a nudge from God as He said to me, “Why are you asking me to do that which I promised to never NOT do? I promised that I would never leave you or forsake you and that I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. Stop asking Me to be with you! My lack of presence is not the problem. The problem is you not recognizing My presence. Instead, why don’t you ask Me to be so evident that you can’t miss seeing Me?”
As simple as it may sound, this revelation not only changed how I pray, it changed how I live. If we live with a mindset that God is only present when we ask Him to be, we will try to manage on our own and only invite Him in when there is a crisis. But when we learn to practice the presence of Jesus, when we begin to actively believe and recognize that Jesus is with us at all times, we will find ourselves aware of our connectedness and our dependence on Him. Abiding in Christ requires recognizing His constant presence.
There have been other things I’ve said over the years that God has gently corrected me on. Here’s a few common statements I had to rethink:
“Lord give me peace.” While this may sound like a good prayer, it actually implies something similar to “Lord be with me.” In John 14:27, Jesus declares, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Jesus has already given us His peace. He promised it when He gave us the Holy Spirit. One of the evidences that we are walking in the Spirit is peace. (Galatians 5:22) The angels sang to announce to the shepherds that Peace had come to earth to dwell among men. (Luke 2:14) Peace isn’t a what, it’s a who; Peace is a person. It’s one of Jesus’ names. When we got Him, peace was a part of the package. He is our peace. He is also our love, our joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So rather than praying, “Jesus, give me peace,” let’s instead learn to pray, “Jesus, BE my Peace.” Corollaries to this type of praying are “Jesus, BE my Love for my mate.” “Jesus, BE my Joy.” “Jesus, BE in me everything that I need to be today.”
“Lord forgive me again for that which I have already confessed. ” We’ve all done it. We do something bad (sometimes really bad), we’re convicted, we confess our sin and ask for God’s forgiveness, and we feel better. Sometime later, we are reminded of what we did, we feel bad about it again, confess it again, and ask for God to forgive us, but now we don’t feel better. What’s the problem with this? The second confession of the same sin is a declaration of unbelief. We don’t believe that God forgave us the first time we asked. We don’t believe the promise of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we repent and confess our sins to God, we immediately experience His forgiveness and God wipes our slate clean. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.” (Psalm 103:12) To confess it again is to say God didn’t keep His word. I visualize God responding to a second confession by saying, “I don’t remember what you’re talking about, and I know everything. But we do keep a record of such things so let me look it up.” He returns and says, “I found the page where what you’re talking about is written down, but I can’t read it because there is blood all over the page.”
“’And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:17-18)
My friend Mike Wells used to say, “The first time you confess a sin, you confess it to God. The second time you confess the same sin you confess it to the devil, and he beats you over the head with it.” So, what should we pray when the memories of our confessed sins return? I have two suggestions: 1. Thank God for forgiving you the first time you asked. 2. Forgive yourself. The guilty feeling you have is an indication that you may not have forgiven yourself for that which God has already forgiven.
God is constantly challenging me in my areas of unbelief. That’s how we grow: by faith we grow in faith! “…for in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith the faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous man shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17). When we put our trust in Jesus by believing that His death and resurrection covered our sin and restored us to life with God, we are secure in Him. As we walk with Him, our faith is constantly growing as we learn to know Him more intimately. Our faith deepens as He transforms our minds, sometimes with a Gibbs Slap, to conform us into His mind and His image.
