Time for Grace-March 26, 2024

Time for Grace-March 26, 2024

Matthew 21:18-22

As he returned to the city early in the morning, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “May there never be fruit from you again!” Immediately the fig tree withered away. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” Jesus answered them, “Amen I tell you: If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it would be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer, as you believe, you will receive.”

Dear Lord Jesus,

The disciples watched that green fig tree wither away to nothing; it must have been astonishing, not something that typically occurs. However, the object lesson in this tree was this: when our faith is fruitless and grounded in anything other than in You, the same thing can happen to us. The religious leaders had a vibrant faith, but it was a leafy faith that looked good on the outside. Because it focused on themselves and their actions, it produced no fruit and was dead.

In this lesson, You also taught the disciples about prayer; our confidence is not in our prayer but in You, who answers us. We focus on unfruitful things that distract us from You and Your forgiveness, which You won for us on the cross. We may need those distractors withered, extracted, and thrown into the sea. So often, we don’t see when those things that distract us from Your love and move us away from You. So please remove them according to Your grace and mercy, especially the sin mountains, in our lives; remove the residual guilt and shame accompanying sin; please take it all away.

Let us have confidence that You will always hear our prayers and answer them according to our faith’s needs. Please cover us in Your righteousness and strengthen our faith so we can share Your grace and mercy with others through faith. Amen.

Written through Pastor Roger Emmons

Let go of everything that pulls you away from faith. Hold on to Christ in faith; when you ask him for anything, trust he will answer you according to what is best for your salvation.