The Master Key! (Continued)

The second passage wherein Jesus demonstrates the centrality of this command to forgive others is found in Mark 11. Just as in the Matthew 18 passage, Jesus stuns His hearers, because He begins with a “word of faith” teaching when He declares, in a very forceful manner: “Have faith in God! (Some have translated this as, “Have the faith of God!) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23).

If one read no further, the reaction would be, “Wow! If I have enough (quantity) of faith, I can do or have anything! I believe, however, that to do so would be a grave mistake. To me, this is, instead, a statement of “quality” of one’s faith, that is, of one’s life priorities. I have heard preachers and teachers speak of this mountain as if it were a literal mountain of granite rock and stones, a veritable Mt. Everest. No, I believe that Jesus was speaking of whatever “mountain” in your life iss blocking your progress in your spiritual walk – fears, cares and anxieties, relational conflicts, envy, anger, financial crises, health problems, et.al.

First of all, note that Jesus tells us that if we have “faith in God,” we can speak to our problems; we can take authority over them. This is because everything in our walk with God is based on the quality of our relationship with Him as our Father. When we began this series, we saw the beautiful balance of approaching God as the awe-inspiring Creator God, the God of all power, blessed be He! – and – approaching Him as our Father, our Abba, our precious “Daddy.”

However, our primary image of, our conception of God as our Father is formed by, and is greatly impacted by our earthly father and the role that he played (plays) in our life. It is sad to say that, unfortunately, many people have a very negative role model of “father-hood,” because their relationship with their earthly father has been one of many possible (even multiple) dysfunctions – abusive, absent, critical, controlling, neglectful, absent, weak, etc., etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum!

People who have not had a strong, caring, loving, nurturing relationship with their earthly father sometimes have an ominous task before them to ever believe that their heavenly Father is really and truly different – loving, protective, strong, nurturing, supportive, attentive, tender, giving, sustaining, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad Glorioso! Therefore, the first thing that many of us have to do is pray for the miracle-working presence of the Holy Spirit to be operative within us to help us "break through" to touch, and be touched by, the heart of our loving Father God in order for us to be able to trust Him.

(To Be Continued - our next Post will conlude this Series on "The Keys to the Kingdom as Revealed in The Lord's Prayer. I pray this series has been a blessing to you for your edification and to draw you ever closer to the Father's heart. ~ God Bless you!)