SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2023 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 21:20-22
Message of the verses: “20 And seeing this,
the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at
once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you,
if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the
fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the
sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you
shall receive.’”
I want to begin this SD by talking about an earlier
time in the life of Christ and His disciples.
It was when the Lord along with Peter, James, and John were up on the
mount of Transfiguration, and while they were up there the other disciples were
confronting a young boy who had a demon, and they could not cast the demon
out. Jesus said to them “Because of the
littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a
mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you’ (Matt. 17:20). John MacArthur writes “Jesus was not
commending small faith. It was the
littleness of the disciples’ faith that prevented their success in casting out
the demon. He rebuked them for having
small faith that stayed small, but exhorted them to have faith that though it
begins small, continues to grow. The
point of the mustard seed illustration is not in its smallness but in its
growing from smallness to greatness. In
the same way, the virtue of mountain-moving faith is its growth from smallness
to greatness as God blesses and provides.”
I
suppose that this is something that I may have learned earlier in my walk with
the Lord, but to be honest I don’t remember these points that MacArthur has
made about the mustard seed growing into something large, which is what my
faith should be doing as I walk with the Lord.
This
kind of mountain-moving faith is activated by sincere petition to God as seen
in verse 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’” The parables of the friend who asked his neighbor
for a favor at midnight and of the widow who petitioned the unrighteous judge
as seen in Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-8 both teach the importance of persistent
prayer. Persistent prayer is the prayer
that moves mountains, because it is truly believing prayer. There are some who are believers who think
that if they pray to the Lord for something, that it should be answered right
away, but that usually does not happen.
I have been praying for some friends of mine that I use to hang around
with 50 years ago and earlier this spring I had an opportunity to get together
with some of them, and this encourages me that the Lord will answer my prayers
that He will save them. I have to say that fifty years to me is not but a
moment to God.
I
think that I will try and finish this section in my next SD, and then I want to
take at least one more SD to quote from the sermon that John MacArthur preached
on this section, the section about the (“Principle) after I finish with this
last SD. He always has more to say in
his sermons than that is written in his commentaries.
6/26/2023 10:14 AM
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