Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, 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.”

Matthew 21:21, 22

To tell the truth, I have read these two verses many times, but, finding them a bit difficult, passed over Jesus’ statement about faith with the proviso that when I get time I will try to figure out what the Lord is saying and whether it has any meaning for me now.

Let me try.  It begins with the faith that Jesus had when he cursed the fig tree that should have fruit, but did not.  The tree withered at once.

I do not use this word, curse, at all or very little.  In this setting, Jesus tells his disciples, and us believers, that if we have faith in God, and believe in his wisdom and power, then we can pray as confidently as Jesus did as he cursed the fig tree.  “If you believe,” is the key.  To believe is to surrender completely our unbelief or doubt and to throw ourselves into the hands of Jesus Christ without reservation, knowing that the Jesus who saves us hears our prayers.  We relinquish all control and submit to the Lord Jesus without reservation. It is certainly not that our prayers are so strong that they overpower Jesus.  Faith implies yielding, not gaining control.  That, for me, gives faith a fresh meaning.  My ego wants to control, even God.  Faith relinquishes all control.  Then the will of God takes precedence, not our own demands.

So, prayer is essentially seeking to align my heart with that of Jesus.  The agony of prayer is admitting that God knows better than I do and to rest entirely on him.  That agony is the ecstasy of the soul.

This is a Lenten thought I was not expecting.