Today’s scripture: Mark 11:12-14; 20-25 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts (Ben Lamb):
The part of today’s passage that perked up my li’l blue peepers the most was verses 22-25, where Jesus talks about moving mountains via faith. I can see CNN’s lead story: “Christians Turn Terrorists: Mount Rushmore Heaved into Pacific Ocean.” The leader of the Heavers-for-Heaven movement states, “Yes, it was a messy thing to do, what with the resulting tsunami and all. I hear there may have been some massive loss of innocent lives and tens of thousands of misplaced people as well. And when you count the deforestation, lost income, clean-up, and other costs, it might run into the billions of dollars, and be totally impossible to reproduce the four presidents-in-stone as well. But, at least we made a point, did we not?!”
Nah, I can’t really imagine Jesus’ (sane) followers even wanting to attempt this sort of thing.
Since Jesus often spoke in parables, I’m inclined to think that at least one way to see his words is this way: mountains can be both literal and figurative obstacles for us. In The Sound of Music, Mother Superior tells Maria to “climb every mountain…”, yet offers her no coiled rope or hiking books. You’ve probably used the phrase, “Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill”, yet wouldn’t hire a construction crew even if you wanted to do the opposite. You’re getting my point; yes?
One thing I’ve had to start doing as I write these Be Still articles is to read and reread the passages. (Something that perhaps I should have been doing with each Bible reading all of my life, I guess, instead of just reading a passage though only once as I’d previously usually done.) I’m finding that by reading a passage numerous times — slowly — I glean more and more depth of meaning and understanding from it. Oh yes, and praying beforehand for guidance certainly helps too!
Anyway… this time around, I noticed for the first time that Jesus tells us that whatever we ask for “in prayer” is what we’ll get. He doesn’t say, “Ask for any ol’ wild and crazy thing with your greedy heart and you’ll certainly get it.”
I went to Matthew 6:9-13 (expanded version of The Lord’s Prayer) as a brush-up of how Jesus taught his followers to pray. There it was plainly: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
I suppose I now know what the overriding theme should be for the types of things I ask for. When I follow Jesus’ blueprint of how to pray, I have faith that whatever mountainous obstacles might initially be present will get moved out of the way at the right time.
Thought for the day: Thank you, Jesus, for making prayer such a simple act to accomplish, yet which can have powerful and amazing results.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.