Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 11:24

"Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." — Mark 11:24 (ASV)

Believe that you receive them.—The better manuscripts give the latter verb in the past tense, Believe that you received them. It is obvious that, as a rule, such words imply prayer for spiritual rather than temporal blessings. In that realm, subjective faith becomes an objective reality. We are to believe, not that we will one day have what we pray for in a future more or less distant, but that we actually receive it as we pray. In most, if not in all cases, in prayer for peace, pardon, and illumination, the promise, though it sounds hyperbolical, is psychologically true.