Faith is believing

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. (Isaiah 55:6 ESV)

 Prayer is not meant to be a “pious reverie” that has only a subconscious effect on us. Prayer is an intensely practical thing, as real as using the telephone. And the party at the other end of the line—God Himself—says to us, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
 After we ask in prayer, then is the time to believe, to wait in faith, and to receive, according to God’s will. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is believing that God is going to answer, even if you can’t see the answer yet, or even if the answer isn’t exactly what we expected. It is not what we think about it, but what God says about it that counts. It is not what we feel, but what God wills. —Virginia Brandt Berg [1]

 We must believe that He exists, that He is … Almighty God. That He is not limited by anything that we can think of. And then we must believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him and believe that He is good. —Jerry Bridges

[1] Anchor Ask and You Will Receive