Withered Fig Trees

Mark 11. Have you ever really imagined this story? It's the beginning of fig season and the tree was covered in big green leaves, but had no fruit yet. Jesus stops for a moment and simply tells this lush, green tree "may no one ever eat from you again."Shortly after, you're going back on the same path and the gorgeous green tree that you JUST saw has become a nasty, withered, pathetic twig.

Now, of course there is the clear illustration that the we are the tree, and though we may look promising, if we do not bear fruit, we will wither and die too.

But more importantly, Jesus chooses to tell us about the power of faith in this instance. Jesus explicitly says, if you believe (without a shadow of a doubt) that God can do something, it will be yours.

Imagine having that kind of faith. Believing God SO wholeheartedly and SO confidently that you yourself could go up to a fifty-year old tree and tell it to wither. And crazy enough, it does.

The thing is, this type of faith is truly within our reach. Not because we are so great, but because God is just THAT crazy. THAT amazing. THAT powerful.

If you do not doubt and believe that what you say WILL happen, it will be done for you! Believe it or not, it really is as simple as that. The power of God is ready and right there for the taking, all it takes is genuine belief. But all too often, we shy away from God's power. We limit what he can do because we're too scared. What if it doesn't come true? And sometimes even scarier, what if it does.

God is capable of giving us a whole downpour, a monsoon, but instead we ask for a single raindrop. We ask for the smallest thing we can, because we don't want to impose upon God with our petty problems, just in case it doesn't work out. In case God says no, we don't want to risk that disappointment. If God doesn't deliver like we hope he will, then what would that mean for what little faith we have?

But we have to realize that the lack of an answer usually is our lack of faith more than any insufficiency on God's part. If we had blazing faith like Moses, Elijah, and the disciples did, we could do miraculous things. We would see God's hands working through our lives all the time, and there would be withered fig trees all OVER the place.

But this world has got us jaded. We are an unbelieving and perverse generation. Of course God is still capable. He is the unchanging, omnipotent God, and the same Holy Spirit inhabits our souls. The only difference now is that we don't believe like they did. But we can.

The Lord is our father. And he explicitly tells us over and over to just come. Just ask. Just believe. And if we actually were to, why would he not give us the desires of our hearts?

So now try reading this with renewed faith in the power of Christ.

⁷"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Matthew 7