How To Pray When You Don't Have Much Faith

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination.

Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. So today we're going to talk about how to pray when you don't have much faith. And I mean, let's face it, we all have days like that. And sometimes it's longer than just a day. It may be a week or a month or a season.

Really, it could be years. But here's the good part. God won't let go of us.

James? Now, one of my favorite verses about this Ravi is 2 Timothy 2.13. It's part of an old saying in the early church and Paul wrote it down in 2 Timothy and he shares it and calls it this trustworthy saying.

Here's the last part. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself. What does that mean?

Well, the word for faithless means to have no belief. That means on those days when you feel like you've got nothing but you still trust Jesus, you're going to be okay because he's got you. You've received him and he's in you and he's never going to turn his back on you. Oh, that's so good.

Isn't that right? Because we've all known those days when if we look back on it, he was holding us up. It may not have looked so much like it at the time, but when you get a little bit down the road, right, you start to see it. Yeah, sometimes when we talk about having faith, we think about the times Jesus said to the disciples, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And Jesus basically says that you of little faith five times, I think four times in Matthew and once in Luke, but the meaning in the original language refers to a lack of confidence or the quality of our faith, if you will, not the quantity. And there may be days when we believe in Jesus, we know him, we love him, but we're just discouraged. You know, maybe we're going through a hard season like the loss of a friend or the dissolution of a relationship and, you know, our soul just hurts. And it's so important to understand at a time like that, that Jesus isn't chiding you for that. He's not down on you. Remember, there's a time when he said, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death. So he gets it.

Oh, yeah, that's so helpful. So let's talk about how to pray at a time like that. Okay, so first, know that you can go to him, and he understands. Remember, he said that even a little bit of faith can move mountains. So if the quality of your faith is good, because it's in him, but your quantity is low, because it's a hard time, still, his faith is made perfect in weakness. So you can lean on him. Yeah, I think sometimes we forget that Jesus knows what it's like to be human.

Yeah, that's just it. I mean, he really does. He's not mad at you. Steve Brown likes to say that, and it reminds me of a great story he told him in one of his books.

I want to read it for you right now. He says, a friend once told me a story about a little boy, Billy. He was in the classroom working on his studies, and then to his horror, he looked down and saw a spreading puddle at his feet. When he realized what had happened, Billy was horrified and humiliated. The worst part was that the teacher was headed down the aisle his way. Billy didn't know what to do. There was no way to hide it or cover it.

There was no way he could change it. He died inside as the teacher got closer and closer to his desk, and Billy knew that the other children would make fun of him, and he would never live it down. Just as the teacher reached Billy's desk, his classmate Sally walked by carrying a fishbowl. She was going to change the water, and when she got to Billy's death, she slipped, spilling water all over him and all over the floor, and everybody, including the teacher, was quick to help clean up the mess. They thought it was one mess, but Billy knew it was two.

He had been saved. And later that day at the bus stop, Billy saw Sally and quietly said to her, you did that on purpose, didn't you? That wasn't an accident, was it? No, she said it wasn't an accident.

Why did you do that? She smiled and said, it happened to me once. Aw, that's so awesome because he really does know us and our weaknesses, and yet he still loves us. Yeah, and that's why we need to stay close. I mean, even in those moments where it just seems like everything's falling apart.

And Robbie, go ahead. You just told me an awesome story before we went on the air about that. Yeah, I mean, Sunday, we were at lunch, and there was an older lady sitting in the table right next to us, and about a third of the way through lunch, she falls out of her chair, and she is ashen gray in her late 80s and unresponsive as she falls out. Her daughter gets up, you know, very upset. Mom, mom, mom, and no response. And interestingly, a waitress that we had not seen to this point, actually a member of my church, comes immediately and gets down there, and I knew that she was a first responder of types.

Her name's Amber. And so I was sitting there, you know, just wondering what in the world's going on when the Holy Spirit just kind of hit me like, Robbie, you need to pray. And I was like, oh, you're right, I need to pray. But I didn't really know what to pray, but I thought, well, I better do what the Holy Spirit said, so I kind of pinned down, and fortunately I knew Amber well, and I put my arm around Amber, and I said, Amber, should we pray? Because I didn't want to interrupt her if she was doing, you know, things that were an emergency kind of thing. And she said, oh, I've forgotten my kid.

It's not my car. Can we pray? And so I just threw up, because I didn't really know what to pray exactly.

I didn't know the lady or anything else. I just said something quickly like, Lord, please help this poor lady. This is a precious life, and she needs our help. We need it. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. And when I finished, almost immediately, like, I shouldn't say almost immediately, immediately, as I opened up my eyes from the prayer, she opened her eyes and began to speak. Within minutes, the ambulance was there, took her out.

Ten minutes later, she came back and finished lunch. But what was even more astonishing was the expression of all the people around that were huddled over us when they saw what God did through the prayer. But again, this wasn't done out of great faith.

It was done on just clear obedience. Yeah, yeah. Just on the spur of the moment, it's like, I don't know what's going on, and then I need to pray. So you pray, and something beautiful happens.

You know, that's it. I think we just need to be honest with Jesus, and He'll meet us there. And I know He's done that for me so many, many times, and He'll do it for you as well. And He really did it that day for you, didn't He, Robbie?

Oh, I'll never forget it as long as I live. And I knew completely this was God. It was His idea to pray.

It was His prayer because I really didn't know what I was saying. And then there was this tremendous result that a lot of people got to see God at work, and it blows my mind. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's beautiful.

That's beautiful. So again, sometimes everything seems like, you know, is falling apart around us. But if the quality of our faith is good because it's in Him, and we've got just a little, remember, He said even a little bit of faith can move mountains. So just go to Him. Keep going. Don't be discouraged. Keep turning to Him because it's up to Him, and He's good. Let's pray. Father, help us to just keep turning to You, to keep coming back. Jesus, we praise You that You are, You know what it's like to be human.

You know what it's like to have hard days. And we thank You, we can turn to You every day. We thank You that You'll never leave us and that You're always faithful. Help us to walk with You. In Your name we pray. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.