It was the last weekend of deer season. My friend Jeff and I were texting back and forth making plans for the following day. The day was going to be beautiful and the weather perfect. We could not have asked for a better day. We were also headed to an excellent spot; yet somehow, I was still focused on everything that could possibly go wrong.
“Be positive,” Jeff responded to one of my remarks. Even though his words were meant for encouragement, something in them still stung me, and I knew exactly why. Though we had only been hunting together for a short time, he had already picked up on a major flaw in my character – I can be incredibly negative.
This negativity was well known by my wife, and she had given me the nickname “Doogie Downer.” Negativity, for many people like me, is a sort of defense mechanism. The thought process is simple: If you expect the worst, you will never be disappointed, but if something good happens you will be pleasantly surprised.
We Doogie Downers tend to call ourselves realists; unfortunately, that label is often accurate because when you expect the worst, you usually seem to get it. For a Christian, however, this attitude presents a problem. How is it that we can call ourselves people of faith while we consistently pray for one thing but in our hearts, we really expect something different?
In Matthew 17, the disciples were confronted with a situation in which a boy was tormented by a demon which caused him great harm, causing seizures and often throwing him into the fire and water. The disciples had tried to cast the demon out but had failed, so the father brought the boy to Jesus.
After Jesus had commanded the demon to leave the boy, the disciples wanted to know why they had not been able to accomplish the task. Jesus responded:
Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17: 20).
It is interesting to note that the initial results had absolutely nothing to do with God’s will as far as Scripture tells us. It was certainly God’s will that the demon be cast out. The problem was entirely with the disciples’ lack of faith. Many of us have the same problem. I can think of many times that I have heard about a sick person and prayed for their recovery, but did I really expect a miracle?
In James 1:7-8, we are told that if we ask in prayer but then doubt, we are being doubleminded and unstable; therefore, we shouldn’t expect anything from the Lord. So often we blame God for not acting, but how many times is the problem of unanswered prayer actually a problem with our lack of trust?
Let me be clear – I am not talking about name-it-and-claim-it religion here, nor am I talking about a life free of troubles. There are many incidents recorded in the Bible when God said, “No.” For example, Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) and Jesus’s request that “this cup pass” (Matthew 26:39) in the Garden of Gethsemane are just two of them. What I am talking about is when God says, “Yes” – but only if we believe. So many answered prayers and blessings, may never come to fruition simply because we doubt God’s willingness to act.
Even modern science seems to point to a lack of faith in the church. In the 22nd episode of the podcast Peeranormal, Dr. Michael Heiser examined nearly 20 studies conducted by physicians and medical researchers since 1965 to see if intercessory prayer influenced the health of seriously ill patients. The interesting thing was that earlier studies seemed to point to the positive effects of prayer on the sick.
However, in one more current study, patients seemed to be worse after prayer. While it may not be proper to try to quantify prayer in the same way you might evaluate the efficacy of a new drug, it is still interesting that based on these results, our collective faith seems to be waning, and I can’t help but wonder how strongly these modern prayer warriors actually believed.
For everyone else out there who spends life expecting the worst, let’s stop it. No more being Doogie Downers. There is no need to be defeated before the battle has even begun. God is still on the throne and still works miracles today. He is willing to work the impossible, and all things are possible to those who believe! (Matthew 19:26)
