To be fully HUMAN — A Daily Reflection

 

 

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked.

   Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

 

The disciples were amazed when they saw how fast the fig tree shriveled up.  Their reaction, in itself, is a little amazing.  After all, these were the very men who had watched Jesus turn gallons of water into fine wine, heal the lame, and give sight to the blind.  These were the very men who had, just days before, watched as Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead after he had laid in the grave for four days.  How could these men be surprised that Jesus could cause a simple fig tree to wither?  Because those men weren’t any different from you and me.

 

Jesus does one miracle after another in our lives, delivering us from the brink of disaster over and over again.  And yet, each time He does so, we’re amazed.  Every time a prayer is answered, we’re astonished… just as though we’d never seen anything like that before!  Every time a miracle happens, we’re either amazed - or we don’t believe it’s really a miracle.  After all, that kind of thing went out with the disciples, right?  And, if we do believe, that belief lasts only for a moment, then passes away like the wind.

 

But Jesus said to them, "If you had faith, you could do the same thing I just did to that fig tree.  If you truly believed, and didn’t doubt that it would happen, you could say to a mountain, ‘Move over there!’ … and that mountain would leap up and move at the sound of  your voice!”

 

The problem is, we do not believe… we do not truly believe in God’s power.  We do not believe that we can be delivered from illness or death or any form of personal disaster.  To be quite honest, most of us have more faith in the cars we drive than we do in Jesus and the power that He can manifest through us and our prayers.  The difference is, that car was made by men, and it will break down.  It will run out of gas.  It will get a flat tire, or worse, have a blow-out when you’re doing 70 on the interstate.  But Jesus will never fail you or me.  He is always there, waiting for us to believe… to have faith in Him and His power.

 

There is one caveat to this lesson… there will be times when what you ask will not be done, no matter how much faith you have.  Why?  Because what you are asking is not within God’s will for your life.  For instance, take a look at Paul.  Paul had a “thorn” in his flesh.  We do not know what that “thorn” was - only that Paul had some type of physical ailment that he really wanted to be delivered from by God.  I do not believe that you could find anyone who has ever lived who had more faith than Paul, and yet – even though he asked three times – God said, “No!”  It was not Paul’s lack of faith that caused God to say “no” – it was the fact that what Paul was asking for did not fall within God’s will for Paul’s life.  Paul understood this, and realized that God’s eternal vision was greater than his limited human vision, so he accepted God’s refusal to heal him and continued on with the life’s mission to which he’d been assigned by God.

 

If you’re walking hand-in-hand with Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you through every moment of every day, then you will usually know whether what you are asking is within His will or not.  If you are convinced that it is within His will, then say to that mountain, "Move!"  And then wait, with no doubt in your heart or mind, fully expecting that mountain to get up and go where you told it to go!