Mark 11:22-25
Sometimes
we make things so complicated, especially things connected to the LORD. We add
if’s, and’s and but’s to so many discussions. Sometimes things really are
simple. We add prenuptial agreements to a marriage because we don’t really
trust people, even the people we are going to marry. We have to have custom
invitations and individualized gift table markers. Doves and butterflies need
to be released just before the horse drawn carriage pulls up to take us on our
Amazonian skydiving survival adventure. We do all this when really all we need
are the “I do’s” in front of two witnesses and an official.
We
complicate so many things. Couples choose to argue about so many things, very
few of which are really that significant. We focus on the small stuff instead
of keeping our eyes on those things that we admire in the other. We argue about
where the shoes land instead of making sure the shoes get put away. We make
relationship so complicated, but it really is pretty easy.
Jesus
has a way of cutting through the complicated. He tells His disciples to “Have
faith in God.” How much simpler could it be! Trust the LORD. He is the only One
who can truly be trusted. He never changes. He always keeps His promises. So we
reach out to Him and trust Him. That trust, His calling us and our responding
to that call, makes the greatest change possible in life. It moves us from dark
into the light, from death to life, from separation from God to intimacy with
God. That is a mountain. What was possible is now possible.
Jesus
uses a literary device called hyperbole as He talks about faith in action. He uses
the most impossible thing to demonstrate the possible thing. Moving a mountain
is not possible. Jerusalem being spiritually vibrant was not possible. Using a
fig tree to demonstrate the spiritual condition of Jerusalem is possible.
Prayer
is about aligning our will with His. If we pray anything according to His will,
it will be done. So if we want answered prayers, pray as the Spirit leads you
in fulfilling His will. If it isn’t His will, it isn’t going to happen as a
result of prayer. We might be able to muscle something through, but it won’t be
because of prayer.
But
we must be people who trust Him. That is what belief is about. Do we really
trust Him to take care of us, or do we think we must help Him out?
Jesus
is not giving us a magic formula for answered prayers. He is not telling us to
muscle up enough faith, to try harder to believe, to really mean it when we
pray. It isn’t about how much faith we have, but where we put our faith, who we
are trusting. If we put our little bit of faith wholeheartedly in the LORD,
then His strength is enough to accomplish His will in our lives and in our
world.
Unforgiveness
gets in the way of trust. If we don’t trust Him enough to balance the
spreadsheet of wrongs, to bring about justice, then we don’t really trust Him.
We have to be willing to let things go, to not continue to carry the hurt from
the past injuries. We need to place the offenders in a list that allows God’s
grace to work in their lives, that allows mercy to flow rather than judgment.