A short but very significant phrase occurs at the beginning and the end of Romans. That phrase is “the obedience of faith.” The meaning of the phrase is this: obedience is faith and faith is obedience. You can’t have faith unless you are walking out your faith in obedience, and you can’t have obedience unless you’ve first been given the gift of faith in salvation.
Pretty well all of the important doctrines of the New Testament appear in Romans, so for this phrase to book-end the letter means we need to pay attention to it.
We’ve suffered in the body of Christ from various misinterpretations and misunderstandings of faith. I try to cover this in a chapter of my book “No Diving.” But suffice to say, one of the most lethal misunderstandings is that merely by summoning up a quantity of mental belief we can speak things into being and cause things to happen. Or that our mental belief somehow obligates God to do what we want.
When that doesn’t happen, because none of us can manipulate God — and who would want to worship a God who could be manipulated? — people get disillusioned and walk away from faith and from God. The problem, of course is that they got disillusioned by believing an illusion to begin with.
Yes, Jesus did say whatever you believed in faith you would receive. But the context in Mark 11 shows he was talking about what you believe that’s already in alignment with the will of God.
But let’s go back to the obedience of faith. You won’t get far by just sitting back in your armchair and summoning God to give you what you want. Maybe you need to take some steps of kingdom obedience. Ask at church what needs doing. Look around at your place of employment, college or neighborhood, and ask what God would have you do. Look for people who need help and reach out to them. And then go back to your prayer room and see what God does.
I don’t have any formula to offer for how to get your prayers answered other than do everything you can to line your life up with his Word and then spend regular time with the Lord. And when you do, make sure not just to talk but also to listen. You might be surprised by what he says and then what he does.
The bottom line is always this. God will never fail those who truly call on him.
