Faith Is Thanking God in Advance by Rick Warren

“When you pray and you ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given what you asked for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).

Faith is not believing God can do something. Faith is not hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance.

Jesus said, “When you pray and you ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given what you asked for” (Mark 11:24 GNT).

You say, “Wait a minute! I’ve got to thank God in advance before I get it in order to get it?” Yes. If you thank God after you’ve got it, that’s gratitude. When you thank him in advance, that’s called faith.

I used this illustration a few weeks ago, but I mention it again because it really helps explain the idea of thanking God in advance: If someone handed you a check right now for a thousand dollars, would you wait until you cashed it to say “thank you”? No! You’d thank that person right away. Yet the thousand dollars wouldn’t really be yours until you actually cashed it, because that check is simply a promise. When you are given the check, you can genuinely say thanks, believing that the promise is credible and that the person has enough money in the bank to cover that amount.

Faith is like that. It is thanking God in advance.

What I’m saying is this: If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, take the tartar sauce with you. You’re going to have a fish fry tonight!

Jesus said, “Because of your faith, it will happen” (Matthew 9:29 NLT).

Talk It Over

Think about some of the common phrases you use in prayer. Do they reflect faith in God?
How would your perspective and attitude change if you truly believed God would provide everything you asked for?
 What kind of prayer would capture your desire to grow in your faithfulness to God?