How do you get to
the point of "no doubts"?
Anyone who has ever tried to curse a fig tree to the withering point or
attempted to move a mountain into the sea probably responds, "It is
impossible!" Yet Jesus insists it
is not impossible and at several points He makes the same assertion. With faith in God you can do certain acts
that are "impossible". If this
is our benchmark where faith could and should be, then it seems a dereliction
to not actively pursue it. Nothing
confounds the Christian quite as much as the powerless and fruitless praying he
encounters. But the height should not be
determined by the depth and the child who gives up on trying to ride a bicycle
because she fell is pushed on by the more experienced at failing father or
sister. Just because we fail at prayer
does not mean it cannot be done. It all
has to do with faith in Christ and some attain faith easily and quickly and
others by fits and starts. It is grace
that flashes your faith to life but obedience and persistence in prayer that
stimulates it to burst into flame. All
at once you will be as stunned as the Disciples by some happy success in prayer
but rather than following through with your new life with God you will be
tempted to return to your old attachments that snared you before. Put those crooked longings to death; attack
them viciously. Someone needs your new
sensitivity to the Spirit's indwelling.
You are not a misfit in the kingdom; you have the tools needed to move
among fig trees and mountains and entrenched demons with assertive sense. Don't sit on your hands flabbergasted by your
struggles at prayer. Evaluate your
praying by two criteria only. Am I
doing what God has told me to do in the Sermon on the Mount through Him
(trusting Him in the hard parts of doing) ; am I persisting in prayer heartily
enough that my faith in Christ has room to grow?
"Have faith in God," Jesus
answered. "I tell you the truth, if
anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not
doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done
for him. Mark 11:22-23 NIV
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