Jesus cursed the hypocritical fig tree in yesterday's passage. Because it deceived people by being in full leaf without any fruit, He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." The next time He and the disciples passed by the tree, it had withered from the roots up. Peter was astonished, exclaiming, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree You cursed has withered!" Jesus uses this as another teaching moment for His disciples regarding prayers and why prayers aren't always answered.
"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. 'Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.'" (Mark 11:22-23) The Jews of Jesus' day often used the figure of speech "moving mountains" to indicate the removal of difficulties. A rabbi who was particularly gifted at explaining the laws of God might be called a "mountain mover" because he was able to help his students understand things that previously were too difficult for them. Jesus isn't telling us that if we only have enough faith we can walk outside, stare at a nearby mountain, and command it to move to another place. But He is telling us that faith has the power to remove many of the obstacles that hinder us in our lives.
In order to bring our problems to God, we must believe "that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him". (Hebrews 11:6) The prayer that we fling out into the universe, hoping some deity is out there who hears us, is not the prayer of faith. We have to believe in the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the personal God who wants to have a relationship with mankind, the God who desires to act on behalf of those who honor His name. The prayer of faith is a prayer made to the God whom we "earnestly seek", meaning we have a desire to know and interact with Him. Our earnest seeking is not meant to be a habit of bringing requests to Him only when we have problems. Our earnest seeking is meant to be a daily habit of seeking the presence of God in our lives. Who wants to deal with a person who only comes around when he needs something? Would we consider a person like that a true friend? Would we feel as if a person like that really loves us? Can we truly say we love God if we only seek His presence when we need a mountain moved? If we are only talking with the Lord when we need something but are not interested in forming a genuine relationship with Him, He is within His rights to say no to our requests.
The problem must be one we can bring to God with a good conscience. Sometimes we ask for things that are wrong, and we aren't to bring sinful requests to the Lord with the expectation that He will grant them if only we have enough faith. God is holy and righteous. He will not violate His laws. No amount of faith is going to override the principles He has laid down for mankind. We do sometimes obtain the sinful desires of our hearts, but we do so through our own will and effort, not because God has granted our unholy requests. Jesus is not telling us we can have anything and everything our hearts desire when He says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24) I believe He's saying something like, "If you know that your prayer request lines up with the will of God, and if you believe God is able to do what you have asked, and if you believe He going to be true to the promises He has made in the Scriptures, you can expect to see your prayer answered."
The Lord's brother James, who believed on Him following the resurrection and who became a leader in the church at Jerusalem, breaks it down for us like this, "You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:2b-3) James says, "Sometimes the reason you don't have what you want is because you lack the faith to ask God for it. Other times you fail to receive what you want because you have bad intentions for it." James warns us about being double-minded, about being people who are not sure of what we believe, when he says, "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do." (James 1:6-8) If we think we believe in God one day, and then the next day we aren't so sure, God is not likely to grant requests we make in this frame of mind. A person who can't make up his mind about what he believes is generally inconstant in other areas of his life, and God does not have to reward such weak and variable faith. In addition, James says we may have the faith to believe our request will be granted, but the motive behind our request is wrong, and God will not honor a request made in the wrong spirit. An example of this would be praying for God to bless our work and our bank accounts so that we may only heap up treasures for ourselves and satisfy the desires of the flesh by living in excess. An example of a prayer God can honor is that He would bless the work of our hands so that we can provide for our families, give to the church, and give to those in need.
Sometimes God says no to our requests not because they are sinful, but because they are not His will for our lives. This is why the Apostle Paul tells us we should be led by the Holy Spirit. When we come to God for help, we should be open to receiving whatever the Holy Spirit has to say, for He "helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God." (Romans 8:26-27) Even with the best of intentions, we sometimes pray our own will rather than the Lord's will. As much as we might want to submit to the Holy Spirit, our human weakness sometimes causes us to ask for things that aren't sinful but that just aren't right for us. The Holy Spirit knows what is God's will for our lives, so He intercedes on our behalf, praying that God's will would be done. Countless times I've been thankful God said no to something I wanted. The thing I wanted might not have been sinful (such as a particular job that sounded really good, for example) but He knew this particular thing wasn't best for me. It wasn't going to lead me in the direction He wanted me to go. There are going to be occasions where we have the faith to believe our prayers will be answered, but God will have other plans for our lives, and we have to be willing to say as Jesus said, "Not my will, but Yours, be done."
In closing, Jesus provides us with another reason our prayers may not be answered. "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:25) That one stings a bit, doesn't it? Or at least that's the effect it has on me. I am still struggling to forgive a particular thing from my past that cut me especially deeply. Forgiving is hard, and the deeper the wound, the harder it is to forgive the one who wounded us. Jesus is saying we are as hypocritical as the leafy fig tree without any fruit if we eagerly desire the forgiveness of God but refuse to extend that same forgiveness to our fellow man. So we see that harboring unforgiveness in our hearts can be a barrier to receiving good things from God. This could be the reason mountains aren't moved. When praying in faith to the God who is able to grant our requests, we should examine our hearts to see whether we are clinging to unforgiveness. If so, maybe God isn't moving our mountains until we get our hearts right. Maybe He's withholding the answer to our prayer because we are refusing to do what Jesus has told us to do. As sinners (and we are all sinners) we have offended a holy God. We have broken the laws of the Maker of all creation. If someone of His greatness is willing to forgive those who have sinned against Him, who do we weak and mortal human beings think we are to refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us?
Lord, help us to come to You in faith, believing wholeheartedly that You are there and that You desire to know us and to be known of us. Help us to believe You are able and willing to answer our prayers. Help us to desire not only Your help, but Your presence and companionship. Guide us by the Holy Spirit to pray for the things that are right for us according to Your will. And Lord, help us to be more like You, so that we can extend to others the forgiveness You so freely extend to us. Help us to be like Jesus, who said from the cross, "Father, forgive them." Father, forgive those who have sinned against us. Help us to do the same. In the name of Jesus, whose work on the cross made salvation and forgiveness possible for us all, we ask these things. Amen.
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