Overcoming Faith

Jesus Christ was a man who routinely did the impossible.  He healed people lame and blind from birth, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead.  Once he cursed a leafy fig tree and caused it to wither up from the roots completely in a night.  The disciples were amazed and Peter pointed out the sight to Jesus the next day.  Mark 11:22-23 reads, "So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. ²³ For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says."

Causing a healthy tree to wither completely from the roots overnight or casting a mountain into the sea by merely speaking are both in the realm of the miraculous.  In one sense no miracle is greater than another, for every miracle transcends human ability and knowledge.  Jesus taught His disciples faith in God is of primary importance in God doing the impossible.  Everything Jesus did was significant and accomplished His purposes.  Whilst man would be content to harness the miraculous power of God for a party trick to impress others, Christ's purpose in causing the tree to whither was an object lesson to illustrate the importance of faith.  It is not our goal in following Jesus to whither trees or throw mountains around, but to recognise our need for faith in our praying.  It is God who does the impossible!

See how Jesus continued in Mark 11:24-26, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. ²⁵ "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶ But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  Unbelief that grows in our hearts can be withered by God and unforgiveness which resembled an immovable mountain in our minds God can remove when we trust and ask Him.  We are called to believe God and forgive others, regardless what they have done.  Jesus said if we have "anything against anyone" we are to forgive them. Have you found this impossible?  Forgiving the sins of others is just as impossible as forgiving ourselves of sin.  Through the shed blood of Jesus and faith in Him God forgives us.  Praise God nothing is hard for Him!

Alan Redpath wrote a fitting conclusion concerning the impossible:  "My friend, I do not know your problems, but I know my Lord, with whom nothing is impossible.  Therefore, if some of you face mountains of impossibility, and you say to yourself wistfully that life can never be any different for you, I believe that the Lord has something to say to you through His Word that can mark the end of your defeat by the impossible, and the beginning of a life of victory which overcomes the world, even our faith in God." (Redpath, Alan. “Victorious Christian Living: Studies in the Book of Joshua.” Redpath Family, 2013, pp. 49.)