3 ways to have faith like Jesus

It is easy to think that Jesus had a great advantage - being the incarnate Son of God, as he was - in praying and getting answers to his prayers. But he said to his followers, "You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it" (Matthew 21:22, NLT).

The first generation of followers of Jesus apparently took his promises seriously. They prayed for audacity and received it (Acts 4:29). They prayed for prisoners to be released, and it happened (Acts 12: 5). They prayed that the sick were healed and were healed (Acts 28: 8). They also prayed that the dead were raised and came back to life (Acts 9:40).

It seems a little different to us, doesn't it? We have faith. But do we have the kind of faith that Jesus was talking about, the kind of faith that those early Christians seemed to have? What does it mean to pray "with faith, believing", as some people have defined it? It may mean more than the following, but I think it means at least:

1) Don't be shy.
"Come boldly to the throne of grace," wrote the author of Hebrews (Hebrews 4:16, KJV). Do you remember the story of Esther? He took his life in his hands and marched into the throne room of King Ahasuerus to make demands that change his life and that change the world. Her was certainly not a "throne of grace", yet she threw all the precautions and got what she asked for: what she and all her people needed. We shouldn't do less, especially because our king is kind, merciful and generous.

2) Don't try to cover your bets.
Sometimes, especially in worship services and prayer meetings, where others can hear us pray, we try to "cover our bets", so to speak. We could pray, "Lord, heal Sister Jackie, but if not, put her at ease." This is a faith that does not move mountains. We must always strive to pray in line with God's priorities ("May your name be holy; that your kingdom come; that your will be done"), but faith does not cover a bet. It goes out on a limb. He presses the crowd to touch the hem of the Master's garment (see Matthew 9: 20-22). It hits the arrow on the ground again and again and again and again (see 2 Kings 13: 14-20). He also asks for the crumbs from the master's table (see Mark 7: 24-30).

3) Don't try to "protect" God from embarrassment.
Do you tend to pray for "realistic" answers to prayer? Are you asking for "probable" results? Or pray moving prayers in the mountains? Do you pray for things that could not happen if God does not intervene clearly? Sometimes I think well-intentioned Christians try to protect God from embarrassment. You know, if we pray "Heal Now or Heal in Heaven", we can say that God answered our prayer even if Sister Jackie dies. But Jesus didn't seem to pray that way. Nor did he tell others to pray that way. He said: "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain: 'Be taken and thrown into the sea', and has no doubts in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, will be done for him. "(Mark 11: 22-23, ESV).

So pray boldly. Get out on a limb. Pray for things that cannot happen without God's intervention. Pray with faith, believing.