"Believe and Receive" Joy

         Have you had your Joy Juice today?  If you believe in the joy of the Lord, you will receive it in  abundance! Believe and receive….we hear those two words used together quite often!

            In Mark 11:24 Jesus said:   “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

And then Matthew 17:20: “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

                Sooooooo does this mean that we can make our list of wishes and desires, and expect God to deliver each and every request? I like how the footnote in my Bible explains that: 

“The kind of prayer that moves mountains is prayer for the fruitfulness of God’s kingdom. It would seem impossible to move a mountain, so Jesus used that picture to say that God can do anything. God will answer your prayers, but not as a result of your positive mental attitude.  Other conditions must be met. According to scripture:

• ·         We must be a believer.

• ·         We must not hold a grudge against another person.

• ·         We must not pray with selfish motives.

• ·         Our request must be for the good of God’s kingdom. 

  To pray effectively, we need faith in God, not faith in the object of our request. If we focus only on our request, we will be left with nothing if our request is refused.”  God does say “no” sometimes….

Consistently pray with a believing heart and receive the Joy of the Lord as His daily blessing.