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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree
wither so quickly?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not
only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this
mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you
believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Matthew 21:18-22
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Jesus and His disciples were on the road
from Bethany to Jerusalem when they came upon a fig tree that was covered in
leaves but with no fruit on it. You’ll remember that Jesus gave the following
command to the tree - “May you never bear fruit again!”
- and the tree immediately withered, in plain sight of His followers who were
amazed by what they had witnesses and asked their Leader”
“How did the fig tree
wither so quickly?”
To which Jesus replied:
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
These powerful words of Jesus form the core
of this devotion as they convey an important message to all believers regarding
the matter of faith, and when coupled with other scriptures, the importance of
the will of God as it connects to faith.
Note first that Jesus connects the presence
of faith with the absence of doubt. This is because it’s absolutely critical
that they be paired together.
Need an example? You may remember this
scene from earlier in Jesus’ ministry:
Then
He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him.
Suddenly
a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But
Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us!
We’re going to drown!”
He
replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and
rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The
men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the
waves obey Him!” Matthew 8:23-27
Jesus was in the boat with His disciples.
They had seen the power He possessed. And yet, when the storm came upon the
boat, the faith of the disciples surrendered to doubt that they would survive,
so much so that they woke Jesus who scolded them before rebuking the winds and
the waves, bringing calm to everything.
Angered at their actions, what did Jesus
say to His chosen followers?
“You
of little faith, why are you so afraid?”
The disciples had failed an important faith
test, all because they allowed their doubt to override their faith.
Need another example? Look another event
that happened at sea.
Shortly
before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw
Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and
cried out in fear.
But
Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord,
if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”
“Come,”
He said.
Then
Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But
when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord,
save me!”
Immediately
Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why
did you doubt?”
And
when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Matthew 14:35-32
Peter had great faith when he stepped out
of the boat onto the water and probably would have made it all the way to Jesus
if he hadn’t started to allow doubt to creep in. As soon as that happened, he
began to sink and cried out to Jesus to save Him. After that happened, what did
Jesus say to His disciple?
“You
of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”
Can you see how the scriptures teach us
that we can’t hope to have faith when we allow doubt to coexist with it?
They don’t go together.
So what happens when we get our doubt under
wraps and keep it from impacting our faith?
Going back to our passage, Jesus tells us.
“Truly I tell you, if
you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig
tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’
and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in
prayer.”
In other words, a person of faith who pushes
doubt aside, believing and trusting that the Lord can do all things, will find
themselves receiving what they pray for, no matter how difficult the situation
might be, even if your difficulties seem as immovable as a mountain. Always
remember that all things are possible through the Lord.
With all this, I need to address the final
words that Jesus speaks because the matter of getting what you ask for in
prayer requires in examining the word of God in whole rather in part. You see,
the words of Jesus taken on their own merit and not informed by God’s word elsewhere
might leave the impression that we serve a “fast food” kind of Lord who fills
our prayer orders exactly as we demand and gives us what we ask for, just the
way we want.
That’s obviously not how it works if you
think about it for a moment. What if someone asked for something that might
actually bring harm to them or others? Of if the request led to sinful, wicked
behavior?
Obviously, the Lord is not going to provide
for anything that would support transgressive behavior.
So how does it really work? How can we be
assured that when we pray in faith, suppressing doubt, we will receive what we
are asking for?
To find the answers, we need to look at
these words from 1 John 5 that brings this matter of praying and receiving into
the proper focus:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 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 what we asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14-15
Now we gain clarity on the matter of prayer
and receiving from God, clarity that allows us to approach God in confidence.
First, we should be praying for the Lord’s
will for our lives. This can be very specific to a situation or a broad brush
approach to life in general. No matter the scope, the first step is to seek God’s
will first.
To reinforce this, remember the prayer
Jesus taught all His believers to pray, a prayer widely referred to as the Lord’s
Prayer. You’ll remember He taught us to pray this:
“Your
kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
In other words, we were taught by Jesus to
pray for the Lord’s will to be done. It needs to be a first and fundamental
part of our prayer life so we make sure that whatever we ask for is something
the Lord wants for us.
Once we have done that, we can be assured
that what we ask for in accordance with the Lord’s will is going to be given to
us. We will have what we have asked of Him.
Through the words of scripture today, we
receive critical knowledge regarding the power found in faithful prayer when it
is partnered with the will of God. My prayer is that you’ll follow this process
as you come before the Lord with your needs, needs He is ready to help you with
but on His timeline which we can be sure is always perfect for He is perfect.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
