Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Withered Fig Tree Faith

Remember the fig tree that was cursed by Jesus? Well, the disciples and Jesus again passed by the tree and found it withered away to its roots. Good old Peter pointed out to Jesus what He had done as if Jesus wouldn't believe that His words would be so powerful.

It is as if Jesus replied to Peters' observation by saying:" You want to see power? I'll show you power! This is how you can have my power." It was then that Jesus spoke words that had the power of dying words, teaching words that simply spoke the message Jesus came to give.

"Have faith in God." Jesus spoke the most powerful of these words at the onset of this teaching moment. He is God! He is telling all of us to have faith in Him, trust and believe.

He then tells us that there will be challenges, like mountains, we need to overcome. They can be removed just like the fig tree dried up: Words, spoken in faith, believing in and trusting God will hold power to remove the obstacles to having faith in God.

Again, Jesus tells us that if we ask in prayer and believe we will have faith.

Finally, Jesus wraps it all up with forgiveness. He asks us to forgive anything and everything so that the Father will forgive us. This, too, takes faith.

Jesus teaches us that to find faith in God we must remove any obstacles by speaking our belief, praying and finally forgiving. What a beautiful lesson to learn under a cursed tree: Have faith in God.

God, You are the place where our faith begins and ends. It is taught at the foot of a tree You cursed for our sakes. I humbly thank You!

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