Slide 2:
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” The Holy Bible : Revised Standard Version Second Catholic edition (2006), with the ecclesiastical approval of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Thomas Nelson Publishing for Ignatius Press.
11:20-26 The Withered Fig Tree :
11:20-26 The Withered Fig Tree As Jesus cursed the tree and cleansed the temple His motives are made known.
Israel is the tree planted and cared for by God yet it refused to respond to God’s care and has not produced good fruit.
The temple, a place of worship, has been turned into a market place of exploitation.
How disappointing, with all of God’s tender loving care, Israel ignores the obvious, still ignores the miracles and still fails to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Slide 4:
The kind of prayer that moves mountains is prayer for the fruitfulness of God’s Kingdom.
It would seem impossible to move a mountain into the sea, so Jesus used that illustration to show that God can do the impossible.
When we pray it must be a prayer of faith.
If we have real faith, prayer is a power that can solve any problem and help us deal with any difficulty.
Sounds easy doesn’t it? The real test is our willingness to bring our problems to God and to recognize that He, not us will guide us, to the solution.
We must also be willing to humbly accept God’s guidance even when it does not measure up to our expectations.
Taking our problems to God, being humble enough to obediently accept His guidance gives us the ability to overcome any trial with His help.
Focus :
Focus Our prayers are often motivated by our own interests and desires.
We like to hear that we can have anything.
But Jesus prayed with God’s interests in mind.
When we pray, we can express our desires, but we should want His will above ours.
Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.”
Do your prayers focus on God or yourself?