Living Boldly for Christ: Daily Reflections on Faith, Prayer & Spiritual Life by David Hathaway
For many of us, prayer begins with the model Jesus gave when His disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." Yet the issue is that too many believers never move beyond that initial step of the Lord’s Prayer. It is profoundly important – God miraculously revealed its depth to me while I was in prison – but we are called to go further. We must actively combine our prayers with faith and true belief.
The miraculous healing I experienced from throat cancer built a foundation of faith for an even greater trial years later. When I was sentenced to ten years in a foreign prison—five for smuggling Bibles and five for preaching the Gospel with the underground church – I turned to God, praying for deliverance.
Answers to prayer are deeply intertwined with our faith. When Jesus descended from the Mount of Transfiguration, He found nine of His disciples unable to cast out a demon. When they asked why they had failed, Jesus pointed directly to their lack of faith, explaining that such breakthroughs require prayer and fasting. To see real answers to our prayers, we must maintain a positive posture of faith in both what we speak and how we pray.
Prayer is not merely about us speaking to God; it is about God speaking to us. Real communication is never one-sided. In any human relationship, silence or failing to respond creates distance – and the same principle applies to our walk with the Lord. Prayer is designed to be a dynamic, two-way conversation.
In any relationship, if there is no communication, the relationship ceases to truly exist. When a husband and wife stop talking to one another, the marriage struggles. The same principle applies to our walk with God: if we do not talk to Him, we do not have an active relationship with Him. Prayer is not a ritual; it is a living relationship, a genuine conversation, and a way of relating directly to the Father.
This is the only occasion in Scripture where prayer is answered by a literal earthquake. I wish more of us would pray with that kind of faith and expectancy today. This was no routine prayer meeting – it was prayer that shook the earth, broke chains, and opened doors. That is the kind of praying the Church needs once again.
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