Fig Trees and Temple Cleaning

Reading: Mark 11

"And Jesus answered saying to them, 'Have faith in God.'" Mark 11:22

Evaluation:

This passage from Mark is highly familiar. Many of the faith have clinched tight to the words that follow this scripture as they are among the clearest teachings regarding the power contained in faith and prayer. As familiar as the passage is I fear the truth of the teaching often becomes lost in the haze that exists where human goals intersect with Divine will.

I feel that Christ's teaching in this passage is that to pray effectively, you need faith in God, not faith in the object of the request. If the focus is only on the request, you are with nothing if the request is refused.

Application:

Faith and prayer. I do not know that there are two more confusing and frustrating aspects of being a follower of Christ. Here in Mark 11 Jesus uses an amazingly powerful picture of faith that can move mountains. But he surrounds it by cursing a fig tree for bearing no fruit, cleansing the temple of greed, speaking to the necessity of forgiveness, and reminding us not allow the object of prayer to become the purpose of prayer.

Prayer:

My mind can not grasp all the details You desire to teach me, but I can sense enough to know that You desire to see me bear more fruit, to clear out my personal greed, to remove unforgiveness from my heart and to become the focal point of my faith.

I say yes. That is the only response I can muster this morning. Yes. Do what You desire in my life today. Grow me in my ability to be prepared to join You in accomplishing Your mission. Remove from me the greedy nature of my flesh. Teach me to walk in obedience to Your command to not hold unforgiveness in my heart. Above all things, center all of my faith in You.

These are hard requests as I know they will take time to develop and they will extract a cost from me that I am not so sure I am ready to pay. But still I say yes. My life has proven that Your desires for me are the only safe refuge I can pursue. I do not want anything in my life which will lead me to any other place than the center of Your plan.