"HAVE FAITH IN GOD!"

Mark 11:22-25                     (ESV)
"22 And JESUS answered them, "HAVE FAITH IN GOD".
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown 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 anyone, so that your FATHER also WHO is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."



Recently our Sunday School lesson was about Israel "demanding" to have a king like all the other nations.  The viewpoint was made that we often do the same thing.  GOD, the CREATOR, wants to love inside our hearts, but we elect to have self or the world as the king in our lives?!  Or we want GOD to be what we envision in our finite minds HIM to be, not what HE actually is.  I'm afraid there are too many times we don't "think" GOD can do something, so we don't pray that HE will do it!

In Genesis 18:14 GOD is speaking to Abraham, and HE speaks about HIMSELF when HE says "IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."  Of course, Sarah was 90 years old and probably "thought" her ability to have children was past, but GOD said there was NOTHING beyond HIS power!

When GOD became flesh in the form of JESUS CHRIST, HE was fully human, but also fully GOD!  We tend to try and box JESUS into what we THINK a human can accomplish!  However, we have to remember that JESUS is/was GOD walking among us, and according to John 1:2, the WORD was there "in the beginning" with GOD!  When we understand that JESUS was/is GOD it can change our entire outlook!  Knowing that GOD HIMSELF "submitted" HIMSELF to become human just so I could have eternal life is one of the hardest, yet rewarding, TRUTHS to grasp of all Creation.

When JESUS says for us to "HAVE FAITH IN GOD", it wasn't as if HE was trying to get us to buy into a pyramid scheme or something.  GOD was being manifested to mankind and HE wanted us to understand that whatever GOD needs to do to make "this world" believe in GOD is not out of HIS power.  Since JESUS now lives in me (John 17:23), I should live with the confidence that HE will accomplish HIS Plan in our lives FOR HIS GLORY!  In Matthew 19:26 JESUS says "With man this is impossible, but with GOD "all things" are possible."  I just need to "HAVE FAITH IN GOD!!!"