Today’s Reading : Mark 11: 23-26
KEY VERSE:
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.” Mk 11:23
In every problem, there is a silver lining called “opportunity”. Every day our church family faces challenges of varying degrees. For some people, the problem is financial shortfall, for some, relationship failures, for others personal insecurity or inadequacy. Problems have a habit of presenting themselves as seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Jesus called them “mountains”. At the foot of every mountain a choice must be made, whether to turn back and leave the obstacle in our way, or to start climbing to gain a new perspective. Mountains always look larger in the foothills than they do when peering down from the summit!
Every day we have an opportunity to present our mountains to Jesus through prayer. He is our first port of call, our starting point not simply our rescuer when we find ourselves lost, having wandered off the beaten trail!
Prayer enables us to not only summit the insurmountable, but actually to move life’s hindrances out of the way altogether, to tell our problematic mountains to relocate themselves into the sea!
Sadly, too many mountains remain firmly rooted as a result of the hard heartedness of human beings. Jesus has promised that if we pray, believing that what we ask for will be given to us (assuming it accords with His will), then we can assume it is already done! How wonderful that we can experience recovery from financial hardship, restoration from brokenness in relationships, as we pray with unswerving confidence in His power and ability to summit the unscalable.
There is however a qualifying criteria in verse 26! Effective, earth shaking, mountain moving prayer requires that our hearts hold no offences against anyone! The very flow of God’s grace and forgiveness require that we learn to live grudge free lives!
ACTION STEPS
• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any obstacles that need to be relocated, overcome or even removed completely from your life
• Where a deep rooted offence hinders your prayer life, ask a friend to pray for you today. Share the burden. Some offences are almost impossible to release in human ability alone, we need to fight with the spiritual weapon of prayer.
• Pray for people who are wounded and need help to move mountains in their own lives