Bible League: Living His Word Jesus answered, "Have faith in God. The truth is, you can say to this mountain, 'Go, mountain, fall into the sea.' And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, then God will do it for you. So I tell you to ask for what you want in prayer. And if you believe that you have received those things, then they will be yours.Jesus is obviously using metaphors in this passage. So far as we know, in the nearly 2000 years since He spoke these words no Christian has ever spoken to an actual mountain and caused it to fall into the sea. The "mountain" in question is a metaphor for any obstacle in life, large or small, that prevents you from fulfilling your God ordained purpose in life and "fall into the sea" is a metaphor for the removal of these obstacles, no matter what form this may take or how long it may take. In this passage Jesus is providing His followers with a fourth option beyond the usual three options available to those with obstacles in their path. The first option is to go around the mountain. Mountains, however, come in chains and this option can lead you far afield of your purpose in life. The second option is to go over the mountain. Mountains, however, are high and snowy and this option can lead to your death or serious injury, thus ending or delaying your purpose in life. The third option, perhaps the worst of all, is to come to a standstill before the mountain. In this option the mountain has stopped all progress toward the fulfillment of your purpose in life. The fourth option that Jesus offers is to have faith in God and to speak to the mountain. Instead of relying on the fleshly zeal of options one and two or the dead end of option three, the fourth option brings God into the equation. Having true faith in God, without doubting, almost automatically leads to the kind of speech that removes mountains. The removal may not always be like the dramatic and immediate removal in the metaphor, but the job still gets done. The fourth option is really the only option available to the Christ-follower. Jesus doesn't merely suggest that we have faith in God; He commands that we have faith in God. For the Christian, it's the God ordained way to deal with obstacles. Indeed, even if the mountain doesn't seem to budge, it is still the God ordained way to deal with them. If you are experiencing obstacles in life today, then start to do what you're going to have to do sooner or later anyway in order to remove them: have faith in God and speak to the mountains! Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingExodus 27, 28 Exodus 27 -- Instructions for the Altar and Courtyard, Oil for the Lampstand NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 28 -- Priestly Garments, Ephod, Breastpiece NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 21:23-46 Matthew 21 -- The Triumphal Entry; Moneychangers; Withered Fig Tree; Jesus' Authority; Parables of the Two Sons, Landowner NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Serve the LORD with reverent fear,and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God's royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities— for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him! Insight We must surrender fully and submit to the Son. Christ is not only God's chosen King, he is also the rightful King of our hearts and lives. Challenge To be ready for Christ's return, we must submit to his leadership every day. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 2 Samuel 1:26 Thy love to me was wonderful.Come, dear readers, let each one of us speak for himself of the wonderful love, not of Jonathan, but of Jesus. We will not relate what we have been told, but the things which we have tasted and handled-of the love of Christ. Thy love to me, O Jesus, was wonderful when I was a stranger wandering far from thee, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Thy love restrained me from committing the sin which is unto death, and withheld me from self-destruction. Thy love held back the axe when Justice said, "Cut it down! why cumbereth it the ground?" Thy love drew me into the wilderness, stripped me there, and made me feel the guilt of my sin, and the burden of mine iniquity. Thy love spake thus comfortably to me when, I was sore dismayed--"Come unto me, and I will give thee rest." Oh, how matchless thy love when, in a moment, thou didst wash my sins away, and make my polluted soul, which was crimson with the blood of my nativity, and black with the grime of my transgressions, to be white as the driven snow, and pure as the finest wool. How thou didst commend thy love when thou didst whisper in my ears, "I am thine and thou art mine." Kind were those accents when thou saidst, "The Father himself loveth you." And sweet the moments, passing sweet, when thou declaredst to me "the love of the Spirit." Never shall my soul forget those chambers of fellowship where thou has unveiled thyself to me. Had Moses his cleft in the rock, where he saw the train, the back parts of his God? We, too, have had our clefts in the rock, where we have seen the full splendours of the Godhead in the person of Christ. Did David remember the tracks of the wild goat, the land of Jordan and the Hermonites? We, too, can remember spots to memory dear, equal to these in blessedness. Precious Lord Jesus, give us a fresh draught of thy wondrous love to begin the month with. Amen. Daily Light on the Daily Path Jeremiah 23:6 "In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, 'The LORD our righteousness.'Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Psalm 71:16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone. Isaiah 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Luke 15:22 "But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; Revelation 19:8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Philippians 3:8,9 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, • and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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