Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God. I assure you : If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for – believe that you have received them, and you will have them…”
Mark 11:22-24 HCSB

If you look at our scripture passage today, you will notice that I put three little dots behind the last word. Now you probably understand that this indicates that I left something out or there is more to this passage. It’s understood when we see those three little dots when we are reading, something has been omitted. Sadly, many people do this with Scripture and this is not good. The problem with the Scripture is that they don’t even put the three little dots or say that they are omitting something. In the case of this passage, it’s something important to the meaning of this Scripture.

What was omitted was the part where Jesus tells them in verses 25-26, when they pray if they are holding anything against anyone, they must forgive them as our Father in heaven forgives us of our wrongdoing. He goes on to tell them if they don’t forgive their brother their Father won’t forgive them. That’s a pretty important qualifier don’t you think?

We all want to hear that we can have anything we ask for if we just believe we have already received it. We want to hear that we can name it and claim it. So, does this mean I can go buy a lottery ticket and if I pray that I win and believe I won, I will win millions of dollars? No, not necessarily.

Unforgiveness is just one of the things that may keep our prayer from being answered. Any unrepentant sin creates a barrier between us and God so that He doesn’t even hear our prayer (Isaiah 59:2). James 4:3 tells us that we ask and do not receive because we pray with selfish motives.

We all want to hear that if we pray and believe we will receive. But, the Bible has a lot to say about prayer and we must be careful not to pull any of it out of context. John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done.” Sounds good, right? But if you read John chapter 15, Jesus is talking about the Vine (God, the Father and the Son) and the branches (us). He talks about how we must maintain a connection to God through Jesus in order to sustain ourselves. If you cut a branch off the vine, it will shrivel and die. When we maintain this connection, we want God’s will to be done. When we maintain this connection to God and we abide in Him and His word abides in us, we want what He wants. We love what He loves and we hate what He hates. We pray for His will to be done. Our prayers align with what God wants. This verse also has a qualifier, we must abide in Jesus and His words must abide in us.

We must be very careful when quoting Scripture that we understand the context and don’t pull it out of context. We must be sure that whoever is listening to us understands the entire context of the Scripture.

There is a great danger to pulling Scripture out of context and we must be very careful not to do this. This is why it’s so important that we don’t simply read a little Scripture now and then, but that we study the Bible. A sinner can pull Scripture out of context, omit parts of it, and even twist it to justify their sinful behavior. Be very careful of those who do this.

One of my favorite examples of this is Romans 8:28. I have heard people say things like, “Don’t worry, the Bible says all things will work for our good.”  This is not true. Nowhere in the Bible does it simply say all things will work for our good. Romans 8:28 specifically says, “All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.” This means that Christians who love the Lord and are doing the work He has called them to do may be persecuted and suffer through hard times, but that God will work it all out for their good.

As you listen to teaching and preaching beware of false prophets. Whoever you listen to, go to the Bible and fact check them. Be sure they are not taking away from or adding to what the Bible says. We are warned against this in Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19.

Often times, those three little dots represent something really important. Be sure you know what it is.

Have a great day!