Mountain-moving Praying

Jesus said to them, Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if someone 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. For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. —Mark 11:22-24 NET

What mountain do you need to move? Mountain-moving praying is critical these days since we are surrounded by mountains. Over the last few days, stories have dominated the news with the plight of over 3.2 million refugees in Ukraine fleeing the vicious onslaught of Russian troops, tens of thousands of Afghans hiding from the Taliban and record-breaking inflation and gas prices. You can turn off the news but your mountain is still looming in front of you. It might be a mountain of personal tragedy, physical sickness, financial or a multitude of other challenges. Whatever mountain you are facing, it is a mountain that God cares about because He cares for you.

Michael Klassen and Thomas Freiling gave a great illustration about mountain-moving praying in their book, Battle Prayers. The story is about a small congregation in the Appalachians who faced an insurmountable mountain. The congregation had built a new building on land donated by a deceased church member. They had pooled all their resources to build a new building but ten days before the first service, they found out the parking lot was too small. The building inspector said he couldn’t approve the permit unless more parking was added.

The pastor responded, “we have no more room to expand. Every square inch of land is utilized except for this hill that stands directly behind the church. Our people just don’t have the money to level this hill and then have it paved. “The inspector replied sorry but there wasn’t anything he could do.

The pastor explained the situation to the church on Sunday. “Tonight, there’s going to be a special prayer service. We’re going to ask God to remove this mountain behind our church and somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted in time for the dedication service next week. But I only want people with mountain-moving faith to come.”

Twenty-four of the church’s 300 members came to pray that night. At 10:00 the pastor said “Amen”. “We’ll open next Sunday as scheduled. God has never let us down before, and I believe he will be faithful this time as well.”

“Monday morning as he was working in his study, the pastor heard a loud knock at his door…The door opened and in walked a rough-looking construction foreman who removed his hard hat as he entered.

Excuse me, Reverend. I’m from a construction company over in the next county. We’re building a new shopping mall and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind your church? We’ll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We’re at a standstill until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly.

The next Sunday the church was dedicated as originally planned. There were far more members with mountain-moving faith on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!”

Klassen and Freiling didn’t reference the name of the church or location, so it may simply be a great urban folklore. If the story is true you may be thinking the church should have done a better job of knowing the building codes before building.

Folklore or poor planning, either way, the story reminds us of how often we get into situations that force us to turn to God. We know some of our mountains are due to our own making but many have been created outside of our control.  Regardless of how the situation happens, we still face an insurmountable mountain.

God is not a short-order cook waiting to prepare whatever we ask. Mountain-moving praying comes out of a deep, intimate and consistent relationship with God. Richard Foster says, “for those explorers in the frontiers of faith, prayer was no little habit tacked on to the periphery of their lives; it was their lives. It was the most serious work of their most productive years. Prayer—nothing draws us closer to the heart of God.”

Through the course of my spiritual journey, I was never excited about the reason for needing mountain-moving prayers but I am thankful God walked with me. God has taken my mountains or what I thought was a mountain and made a parking lot out of it, though seldom how I thought the parking lot would look!

E.M. Bounds understood the importance of mountain-moving prayer as he wrote, “The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere…. God shapes the world by prayer.”

I don’t know if you are at the bottom of a mountain looking up not knowing how you will climb it, or at the top looking down rejoicing in how God has answered your prayer, or if you are still climbing. One thing I am confident of, God is with you as you face the mountain.

I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Psalm 121:1-3

God is great