I believe God answers prayer

Lieutenant Martyn Bellshaw challenges us to pray in faith.

Key text

• Acts 3:1–10

Our study passage takes me back to when I was a little boy attending Sunday school and singing ‘Silver and Gold Have I None’. It continues: ‘But such as I have give I thee./ In the name of Jesus Christ/ Of Nazareth, rise up and walk!/ He went walking and leaping and praising God,/ Walking and leaping and praising God.’ As we sang, my friends and I danced around the room without a care in the world. As I’ve got older, I don’t really dance, but I’ve grown in my experience and understanding of healing in the name of Jesus.

In this passage, we read that, as usual, Peter and John were going to the Temple to pray. In doing so, they were presented with an opportunity to encounter the supernatural power of God. I wonder whether we go about our day with eyes open to God.

Pause and reflect

• How does the ordinary rhythm of your day help you encounter opportunities for the supernatural?
• Are you bold enough to ask for what you want and need?

The man at the Beautiful Gate was there to ask for money. I wonder if he was asking because this was what he wanted or because this was what he needed. The wonderful thing about God’s healing is that it is given in the way we need it most. This doesn’t always mean it’s given in the way we want. This can be really difficult to accept.

Pause and reflect

• How do you recognise God’s healing when you don’t always receive it in the way you want?

When we look at someone, what do we see? How many people walked by the man, looked at him, but didn’t really see him?

It’s interesting to note that ‘Peter looked straight at him as did John’ (v4) and then Peter made the man look directly at them. Peter and John looked and saw with the eyes of Christ. They saw more than a beggar. They saw a person who needed to experience God’s healing. They didn’t offer him money, which they didn’t have. Instead, they offered him all they had: Jesus Christ.

Pause and reflect

• When you look at others, do you see them as Jesus sees them?
• What opportunities do you miss when you don’t look and see?

This story isn’t about Peter and John. It’s not really about the man who was healed – we don’t even know this man’s name. This story is about Jesus and his work. Peter did not offer healing in his own name. He was crystal clear that it was only through the name of Jesus of Nazareth that the prayer of healing was offered. Peter and John demonstrated their faith in Jesus, who they had seen healing people. They had also heard his teaching about the power of faith, so they put their faith into action and confidently prayed for the man’s healing in the name of Jesus.

Pause and reflect

• To what extent do you pray in faith, believing that Jesus will answer?

We often hear prayers that are eloquent and sincerely offered. Peter’s prayer was simple – he declared the name of Jesus, and then simply asked directly for what was needed. That was all that was needed.

I can sometimes get in the way of God’s working by complicating something that is extraordinarily simple. When we pray for healing, is that what we pray for? Do we complicate what should be simple?

What if God doesn’t answer our prayers? What if that man had never leapt or jumped again? There are times in prayer ministry when healing doesn’t come. I have found that very difficult. Yet we still need to give glory to God and, even when we don’t understand his answer, allow him his rightful place as sovereign over all things.

Pain and suffering are realities of life that I am sure we all question. There are times in my own journey with God when I have been angry at his apparent lack of action.

In my preaching, I often refer to my granny. She was a beautiful, godly woman, who offered much advice that was full of wisdom and grace. One such piece of advice concerned praying for others. I was being bullied at school and really struggling with it. My granny told me to pray for the bullies.

After many months of prayer and conversation – and frustration at praying for the bullies’ redemption – I actually prayed God would strike them down. However, my granny very wisely let me know that prayer is about God changing us first.

So, instead of praying curses, pray blessings. Perhaps, instead of praying for external circumstances to change, we should pray for God to change us from the inside. In all things, we should give the glory to God.

God does answer prayer. That’s a fact. The man who leapt and jumped knew that reality. Peter and John knew that reality. When we dig deep in our lives, we know that reality too. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that ordinary rhythm of prayer were just as natural as breathing? What if we walked into our fellowships and discovered people naturally praying for each other, without the need to set aside time – although this is good too. What might the results be? I think we would see the supernatural become our expectation rather than the exception. How wonderful it would be to give God all the glory!

I declare: ‘I believe God answers prayer;/ He’s answered mine before’ (SASB 761).