2023_11_03 Insight Post- Karenna Rowenhorst
This week’s reading- Isaiah 9, Matthew 21, Isaiah 11, Mark 13
I’ve never cursed a fig tree, but I’ve had plenty of opportunity to get mad at all the plants I’ve tried to grow in my garden. The operative word there is “tried” because I have not been all that successful. I’m going to blame the soil, because I really have tried my best!
When reading the passages this week for the Bible Reading Plan, I kept thinking about all the powerful actions of Jesus in Matthew 21. Jesus’s miracles and displays of power, including his curse on a fig tree with no figs, gives us evidence of his divine nature. And the more I study it, the more I realize that during every moment of his life on earth, Jesus was both telling parables and performing miracles for the general benefit of the crowds of people around him and he was also deliberately teaching the disciples about faith and how to live it out.
When the disciples are amazed at the power Jesus has over nature, Jesus replies, “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 NIV
This event takes place after many of Jesus’ jaw-dropping miracles, right after his arrival in Jerusalem where he was welcomed by the people on what we now call Palm Sunday. I think Jesus wanted to encourage his disciples to be strong in their faith and to realize what power they had through their prayers. The disciples were riding high on all the displays of power and the undeniable presence of God that was with them. But things were about to change. Jesus knew he would be put to death and the effect it would have on his followers. Jesus knew what was coming and he wanted his disciples to remember that God is faithful and powerful and can be trusted to come through for us when we lean on him.
Jesus says “if you have faith.” So what is faith? What is believing? When I want to remember what faith is, I often turn to the verse in Hebrews 11 that says, “Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. Hebrews 11:1 AMP. How do I have assurance in something I hope for? Or have evidence of something I can’t see? Having faith can feel out of reach and maybe even unreal, like a dream you can’t quite remember.
For me, I can have faith in something I trust. But how do you come to trust something or someone? I think you trust someone by getting to know them, spending time with them, and seeing them in action. I know I have friends I can trust without a doubt. The same is true for our relationship with God. We trust what we know. You can’t force faith by sheer willpower, telling yourself you are just going to do it. It develops and grows over time. So how well do you know God? Do you spend time with him? Read about him in the Bible? Talk to him? Listen for his voice? We can pray and ask the Holy Spirit to increase our faith, but faith doesn’t happen without trust.
Let’s grow in our faith today by trusting in a God who is the best counselor, the best peacemaker, the best father, and the best leader we could ever put our trust in!
Karenna Rowenhorst
Senior Director of Education