[22] “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. [23] “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. [24] Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. [25] And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” [26] {But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.} (Some manuscripts include this language also found in Matt. 6:15).
I believe that this is one of those verses that, taken out of the context of the whole scriptural and especially the New Testament, can easily become a name it and claim it teaching. The greater context of scripture puts these comments in proper perspective, and thus we cannot just read them with our modern English understanding and think we have Jesus telling us if we believe something will happen that it will happen, like our belief is the key to everything.
Jesus, in John's Gospel, said very clearly that He only said and did the things the Father was doing (John 8:28, John 12:49 & John 14:10). He wasn't just believing things and seeing them come to pass, He was operating in intimate cooperation with the Father. In the same way, Jesus says here, "whatever you ask for in prayer" and this is what Jesus was talking about in the verses from John's Gospel, all His prayer was communication with the Father, and so should ours be. He isn't directing us to just decide what things we want, pray for them and expect them to happen. Instead, He is encouraging the disciples to operate our a place of greater faith, and greater intimacy.
I find it interesting that at the end He basically ties this all back to the two greatest commandments, to love God and to Love one another, and says that the latter can affect the former. There is a level of connectedness to our love for each other, that opens or closes our relational interactions with the Lord. Again, this is on us, and a result of our hearts, not God's. He always loves us, always extends mercy and love, has compassion and even forgives our sins. It is our unwillingness to extend forgiveness to our fellow man, that shows our heart unwilling to be obedient to the Lord, and His commands. Our unwillingness to forgive means we are taking on the Lord's role of judge, and as such we limit ourselves from experiencing God's mercy.
Forgiveness is actually one of the topics that Jesus discussed many times. The word is used 38 times in the Gospels. It was something that Paul, James, the Author of the letter to the Hebrews, and John wrote about in their letters. Jesus is bringing our focus back to our own walk and faith in God with His teaching about forgiveness. We must be willing to forgive, knowing that we can trust in God, rather than ourselves for vengeance, if required. We must be willing to lay all aside and come to Jesus with unbound hearts and unforgiveness definitely binds us.
I go back to Jesus' first statement in verse twenty-two, "Have faith in God!" As we step into relationship with Him, as we meditate on His character, His truths, and His words, we will see that His love and forgiveness is much better than holding onto our unforgiveness. As we grow in relationship and understanding of His heart and His purpose, we will begin to be able to engage in prayer and see God change things, in both the natural realm as well as the Spiritual realm. We will grow in confidence in our ability to see and hear, and our faith will grow accordingly.
Amen!
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