Sunday, October 18, 2026
Mark 11:24 (ESV)
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Reflection
“Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them.” These words of Jesus can either confuse us or free us, depending on what we think prayer is really about.
If we read this verse as a blank check for whatever we want, we will be disappointed, and worse, we will miss what Jesus is actually teaching. He is not telling us that faith is a magic formula that bends God’s will to ours. He is telling us something better: that real prayer flows out of real trust in a Father who is good, who hears, and who delights to give good gifts to His children.
Here is the honest truth about my prayer life: it is often weak, distracted, and small. I ask timidly because I doubt. I forget to ask at all because I trust my own strength more than I should. I am not naturally a person of bold, believing prayer. But this is exactly why I need a Savior who prays for me, whose righteousness covers my faithless praying, and who invites me again and again to come.
Jesus did not say this to the confident. He said it to weak disciples, just like me, who needed to learn that God is more trustworthy than their fears. So today, bring your real requests to a real Father, not because your faith is perfect, but because His love is.
Lord, grow my trust. When I doubt, hold me anyway. Teach me to pray not from confidence in myself, but from confidence in You.
Sources & attribution
Devotional from Morning Selah.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.