A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 11:20-26 Unlocking the Power of Faithful Prayer: Lessons from Jesus and the Fig Tree
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Following the startling image of a withered fig tree, Jesus seizes a powerful teaching moment about the transformative nature of faithful prayer. What begins as the disciples' amazement at a cursed tree becomes a profound masterclass on connecting with God through prayer.
Faith in God—not faith in faith itself—emerges as the cornerstone of effective prayer. While we often place our confidence in temporary things that inevitably disappoint us, Jesus points to something more reliable: the unchanging character of an all-powerful, all-wise, and ever-present God whose love and justice never fail. This distinction revolutionizes how we approach prayer, shifting our focus from the intensity of our belief to the trustworthiness of the One we're believing in.
The seemingly hyperbolic image of mountain-moving faith isn't about magical thinking but understanding that our biggest problems—symbolized by mountains throughout scripture—are never too overwhelming for God. Sometimes prayers must be verbalized, not just thought, giving testimony to God's work when those prayers are answered. Yet Jesus balances this power with important guardrails: prayers must align with His character ("in My name"), and our hearts must be free from unforgiveness.
Most striking is Jesus' emphasis on forgiveness as essential to prayer. Our natural tendency toward bitterness stands in stark contrast to God's heart that "desires none should perish." When we forgive others, we align our hearts with God's and open channels for answered prayer.
Whether you're facing mountains of impossibility or struggling to forgive someone who's wounded you deeply, this teaching offers practical guidance for developing a prayer life that moves beyond routine repetition to genuine, transformative connection with God. What mountains might start moving in your life when you approach prayer with genuine faith?
All right, mark, chapter 11. I don't know what to say. Thank you, how about that, mark? Chapter 11, verse 20 is where we'll start. We're considering the idea of faithful praying today. We left Jesus last week cleaning up the temple and cursing a fig tree. A little harsher side here to Jesus. The religious leaders are concerned with the cleansing of the temple. That's not going over well with them and they'll get into that next week. But the disciples are more concerned with the illustration and the cursing of the fig tree. So that's really what we'll look at here today A fruitless fig tree representing the nation of unbelief there at the time and cursed by Jesus to remain unfruitful.
Speaker 1:In verse 14, jesus, in this cursing of the fig tree, says let no one eat fruit from you ever again, and you'll remember, the tree withers from the roots and dies. Verse 20,. We see the disciples the next day and they realize this fig tree. And then, whoa, it really did die. Remember, jesus cursed that fig tree and there it is now, shriveled and dead. And Jesus takes the opportunity. As they're amazed by that, jesus takes the opportunity to teach them about faith-filled prayer, effective prayer, a useful lesson. So let's join him in verse 20. How about that.
Speaker 1:Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter, remembering, said to him Rabbi, teacher, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. So Jesus answered and said to them have faith in 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. Therefore, I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them Verse 25. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses, but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. So here we are Jesus has cursed the fig tree. The disciples are really amazed by this and Jesus takes time to point them to faith, faith in God. So the first thing we understand about this? Effective prayer.
Speaker 1:Prayer is one of those things that I think we know is part of the Christian life. It ought to be part of the normal Christian life. But what is it the first thing we understand about prayer is it's got to be based on who God is and what he's like. Have faith in God. Faith has to be in God who he is. Genesis 1.1,.
Speaker 1:He's all powerful. Right, there's nothing God can't do. He has all power. He's all present. Psalm 139, great Psalm. If I go up to heaven, you're there. If I go down to the deepest parts of the earth, you're there too.
Speaker 1:God is always with us. He's omnipresent, he's all wise. Jude says in his letter, verse 25, that God, our Savior alone, is wise. Right, so all these things, god is powerful, he's wise, he's with us. But then what he's like, right? That's why we read the Bible so many times is to find out what is God like. We know it's his power, but we also know his character. Right, god is loving. Right, god is love. John tells us that's his primary character. But he's also just. Deuteronomy 32.4 says all your ways are justice. Right, so he's loving, but he's just. He's righteous and holy, but he's so kind. Right, all the character traits of who God is. You can study that as you go through the Bible and just look at who God is and what he's like. It's wonderful to see.
Speaker 1:But faith is. Our trust is based on what God is like, who he is. So we trust that he can work in our life because he's kind. We trust that he will work in our life and take care of us. That's who God is.
Speaker 1:But notice there in verse 22, again same thing have faith in God. Our faith has to be in God. And you think, well, that's what my faith is all about. My faith is about God. But sometimes, sometimes, we have faith in faith. I think Sometimes, sometimes we have faith in faith. I think, right, I believe, I believe, you know, and our prayer is God, I believe that you're going to work, I believe in here, I'm having faith, I'm trusting you, kind of like Peter Pan right, I can fly, I can fly, I can fly, you know, if I just say that, enough, I'll do it, it'll come true.
Speaker 1:But we don't just have faith in faith. That's kind of silly. It's not faith in just prayer. That's another thing. Sometimes we can trust Well, I've prayed enough, I've lifted it up to him. Well then, it's going to all work out, it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:And it's that vain repetition that Jesus talks about. You know that, the Gentiles, the vain repetition. There are many words. They think they'll be heard and we just go like I've prayed about it all day. Now I know from experience when you're really going through it. That's what prayer looks like.
Speaker 1:You know you think about that sickness or you think about that situation and you just cast it on God. Right, that's good. I think that's what prayer and our trust in God does. But it's not just because we pray that things are gonna work out okay. We're not just trusting in prayer, it's our faith in God. That God is the one we need, our trust in him. Now check it out. We have trust. We've said this a lot. We have trust in a lot of things. Right now. You have trust in your chair. I believe this chair is going to hold me right. You know you have trust in a mechanic. Sometimes when you have hope, maybe right when you take your car in to get fixed, I sure hope they can figure it out. It's not going to cost too much. But I put my trust in a good mechanic, right.
Speaker 1:We put our faith in a friend to be faithful, a spouse to be faithful, and here's the problem, of course, we see, is that all those things could let us down right. The chair, of course we see is that all those things could let us down. Right the chair although it seems sturdy, the chair could let you down. It's happened before. Right the mechanic although they might have a good heart, they may not see the problem through, they may not figure out the right thing. The friend may stab you in the back. It happens, right, we're familiar with that. But God, it happens, right, we're familiar with that.
Speaker 1:But God, we put all of our trust in him and he will not let us down. In fact, part of his character is that he cannot let us down. He cannot be unfaithful. He will be faithful. And so we look at this thing of prayer and and we go. My faith has to be in God, not in me, not in my ability to be religious and pray, but in God. God, I'm trusting you, I want to trust you.
Speaker 1:Now check out the other kind of faith we see here in verse 23. It's mountain moving faith in verse 23. Now, because we trust in all powerful God. This shouldn't surprise us. It's a pretty wacky illustration that Jesus gives here, if you can say that, about something Jesus said. Wacky, but you know this idea of tell that mountain to go run into the sea. Picture it, the mountain sprouts little legs and runs into the sea and cannonball, you know, and you go. Jesus says if I believe I can tell that mountain, go throw yourself in the sea and it will. And it's a little extreme and a little absurd. Probably got a little bit of a laugh, you know, from Thomas, right, when Jesus said you can tell that now. And Thomas said he said, thomas, why are you always doubting man? But you know, you know it's silly, almost it's a pretty crazy thought.
Speaker 1:But the thing is that God can do it. There's nothing that's too difficult for God to do, but mountains are oftentimes pictures of big problems. God can do it. There's nothing that's too difficult for God to do, but mountains are oftentimes pictures of big problems. We get it right. Our problems are like mountains in front of us In Zechariah 4, verse 7,.
Speaker 1:They're rebuilding the temple. A guy named Zerubbabel is in charge and God tells him who are you, o great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain. So these problems and issues in our life, they seem huge like mountains. But yet God can move, do miraculous things and even move mountains. Now notice there in verse 23,. Whoever says this mountain be removed and cast in the sea and does not doubt in its heart, in his heart, doubt, it says that number one we might need to say to the mountain right, not doubt, we'll talk about doubt in a second. We might need to say to the mountain be moved Now, picture that. That also is a little absurd, isn't it? To talk to a mountain right? Jesus in our last study talked to a tree right. But then here he says speak to the mountain.
Speaker 1:Prayer is sometimes in our hearts. I love that kind of prayer right. When I was a kid we would always mention the special unspoken. Did anyone grow up with that phrase, special unspoken? I've got a special unspoken. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's in my heart and I just want to pray about that. And I like special unspokens because God knows our heart, right, god knows. That means that you can pray. Wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, you could pray and God knows what's going on in your heart, maybe at work, in the middle of a job or something. You can pray and God knows. But there comes a point where sometimes we do need to speak prayers. Some prayers only work if they're spoken. Probably worth a turn.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to Romans, chapter 10. Romans, chapter 10. Romans, chapter 10. Very important passage here in chapter 10, verse 9. Romans 10, 9. Paul's words on salvation. How it happens so, romans 10, 9.
Speaker 1:If you this is in the middle of a sentence which isn't ideal, but it'll work this time If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So check it out. Paul says in order to be saved, you believe in your heart what God has done for you. Believe, you trust in your heart. That's deep inside. You can't see it, but it's there right Now. Follow. This is important. You believe in your heart, but Paul says you confess with your mouth. You say it right Now. That's not one of those special unspokens that you can have God, I just believe. And then you never tell a soul that you've believed.
Speaker 1:Paul here says you need to confess with your mouth. You tell people I do believe in Jesus. I have received him as my savior. A lot of what baptism is goes along with that. It's confessing to the world. Here's what's happened in my heart. I hope you see it, I hope you know it. He's my Lord, he's my master.
Speaker 1:So some prayers need to be spoken and it can be helpful sometimes to actually speak our prayers out loud, things that we really pray, that God would work in situations. It's helpful because when it comes to pass, when God actually does it, we have that testimony. I prayed for that thing. And James here says some of the problem with prayer, in James 4 too, is that you do not have because you do not ask. So speaking a prayer is important to moving mountains.
Speaker 1:But look at verse 23 as well, back in Mark, chapter 11, verse 23. That's not Mark, mark 11. It says we shouldn't doubt in verse 23. Now here's the thing. I read that and I go. Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt. I doubt's the thing. I read that and I go. Well, I'm sunk Because I doubt. I doubt all the time. I don't know if there are too many times in my life where I've asked something in prayer and honestly, without a doubt, believed that it was going to work out. I have doubt. There is a spiritual gift of faith in 1 Corinthians 12, 9, a gift of faith, but most of the time, in weakness, we do doubt, but to just trust. And it's wonderful to see, through the Gospels, the disciples O ye, of little faith, and yet Jesus still answered them. Oh, your faith is so weak and yet Jesus still answered them. Oh, your faith is so weak and yet Jesus still worked. Even when we do doubt, god does work. But look at verse 24. We'll move on. Therefore, I say to you whatever things now follow this. Therefore, I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you may receive them and you will have them. Just name it and claim it. Guys, anything you want, that's what it says here. Oh, I woke you up. Somebody looked at me at that point. Man, you want a new car, ask God for a new car, he'll give it to you. Anything you ask Now, car, he'll give it to you. Anything you ask Now, don't walk away. We better turn to this one, john 14. A lot of turning here this morning, but keep you awake. It's hot in here. Is it hot in here? Feels hot in here? Just saying John 14, verse 13. 14, verse 13. Similar idea here in John 14, verse 13. Jesus says and whatever you ask in my name, I will do it. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. That's a great promise. Now, in John 14, he's talking about the Holy Spirit and spiritual things. That's probably important. But a phrase to really notice here is that he says you ask anything in my name? Right, my name, and that's a big thing. Right, my name, and that's a big thing. Now, a lot of times you'll notice that we end our prayers by saying in Jesus name. And I got to say growing up I felt like that was a little bit of an abracadabra. You know, if we throw the in Jesus name, then poof, it will be done in Jesus name, right, and yet obviously that's not it. Asking in someone's name means to ask in line with their character. James tells us now follow this. James tells us in chapter four, verse two here's a problem in prayer you ask and you do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. So James here tells us sometimes we don't get what we pray for because our mind and our heart is just messed up. We're asking for things to spend on our own lust and our own pleasure and you go, I get it. I get it. I can say I have all the decent motives in the world and yet, if it really comes down to it, I want what I want for me, you know. You know, God, give me a million bucks and I promise you I'll give you 10%, right. But our motives are not necessarily pure. Even in our best scenarios we're falling right. Asking in Jesus' name is important because it means we're asking according to his character. I like to go out to eat Wow, that's profound. I like to go out to eat, Cheryl wow, that's profound. I like to go out to eat and I'll be right there with you when it comes to the end. When you're ready to pay for something you know who's going to pay for this I'll try to at least arm wrestle you to pay for it. That's how I was raised and you know it's like it's a little bit of a. It does yourself good in your heart, but you know I'll pay for it. But here's the thing that you might know If you're going to take me up on that, if you're going to order according to my heart and according to my name, there's some things you probably won't order Alcohol, right Now we can talk about alcohol and there's different opinions in the church and, honestly, the Bible does not say that it's a sin to drink. But in my life my grandmother was killed by a drunk driver. My mom almost died in that same crash. In my ministry, I've seen countless people throw their lives and their families away because of alcohol. I've never seen anything good come out of it. And so if you were to go to lunch with me I'm being straightforward, I guess, and I said you know what I got it this time and you order a beer, you will not be ordering according to my heart and my name, right? I might say you know what you can pay for that. Let's have a great time. I might not say that, I might not say anything, but you understand, though, because of where I'm at in my convictions, that's not in line with what I would want to give you, because I've never seen anything good come of it. I think asking in Jesus name is like that. We can't ask for things that are against his will, right, and yet so many times we don't have a clue. Isn't that the craziest thing? You go. What does God want? Does he want me to have this job or does he want me to have that job? I don't know. And so that's why it's always safe to leave it in God's hands and say God, your will be done. Even Jesus I don't understand all of it, but even Jesus said, father, not my will, but yours be done. And that's a great place to leave it in the heart of God. God, do you want this person healed, or to use doctors, or what do you want? God? I know what I want. But God, your will be done, you know what's best. God again, do you want me to have this job or this job? Man, I don't know where it's going to take me in the future, but God, your will be done, and we just go. God, even in that I want to trust you. I don't know what the right answer is, but I trust you. And so here we realize this, asking and getting anything you ask for, this amazing pray for anything. Faith is according to the will of God, according to the name of Jesus. Now one more thing here, in verse 25. And it's hard to know if this is connected because most of our Bibles, you know, have a little section break there. But I think it's connected because it's talking about prayer. Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone. Forgive him, that your father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses. Now he goes on to talk about. If you don't forgive him, then neither will your father in heaven forgive you, and that's pretty intense. If we don't forgive, god won't forgive us. What does that mean? I don't know, but you probably ought to forgive people is what I think Jesus is getting at here. But let's look at this idea of forgiveness, because it talks to us about a right-hearted prayer. A right-hearted prayer. What we find from looking at this is we're pretty messed up. Right, the Bible says that to us often. We're pretty messed up because we can look at other people and, in bitterness, we hate them. Right, we all have that. We all have forgiveness that we can offer to other people, and we struggle with it. We're all messed up. The Psalms have you ever read the Psalms? And you're stopped by one of these. They're called imprecatory Psalms Great word to maze your friends with imprecatory Psalms. They're the Psalms of David, where he goes God, kick their teeth in my enemies. Kick their teeth in God, make their children orphans and their wives widows. And you're like is that a good prayer? You know, and David offers this prayer of like God, just mess them up, get them, you know, and you go. I don't know if that's a good prayer. I'm a little shocked by that. David, a man after God's own heart, and I think it's there not because pray like this. God kicked their teeth in, you know. But you know what we all struggle, right, david was just being honest and you can be honest with God in your prayer. But forgiveness is important. Going back to our last point, to have the same heart that God has Now, think about it. To have the same heart that God has for people. We do not have the same heart that God has for people, even in our society, now, check it out Even in our society. Now, I grew up very conservative. We've talked about alcohol and we'll talk about language for a second. The word darn was frowned upon in my circles. That's a little close, isn't it? Darn right? But you and I know that it's very common for people to talk about damnation, damning things. Now, this is not about language, so much here, but it's the concept. Right, we hit our thumb with a hammer and we condemn the hammer to hell. That's what that word damn means. Right, To condemn to hell. You know, we step on the Lego, like every parent has, and we condemn that Lego to hell right Now. Maybe some of us don't do it outwardly, but it's in our heart. I'll just be honest, it's in our heart when we step on that Lego and so you think about it. In hell there are hammers and wrenches that have caused us to grade our knuckles. You know there are Legos galore in hell because of all the time that people have damned a Lego right. But there are also bad drivers in hell. There's a lot of bad drivers in hell. If God answered our prayers on the road right, a lot of bad drivers are there and maybe some of our enemies. And we look at that and, yeah, it's kind of silly. Kind of silly to talk like that. We don't actually mean God condemned that person to hell, but we realize that our heart is not God's heart. Our heart is absolutely not God's heart when it comes to the people that have hurt us. Now think about it. When it comes to the people who've hurt us or done us wrong, we don't wish them forgiveness, we wish them worse most of the time. Now we wouldn't maybe say it, but that's it. And here Jesus says you don't have the right heart when you don't forgive. There's a lot more we can talk about this. If we've really been forgiven, we will forgive. Other parables tell us, but check this out 2 Peter 3.9. 2 Peter 3.9 says this the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. So when we look at God's heart, when we look at this ugly world, we go. God, why don't you just judge this place, nuke them? God, you know fire and brimstone and we go, but God is patient. And we go, but God is patient, not willing that any should perish. That's a huge statement. God doesn't want anybody to go to hell. Now, the will of God and predestination, I don't get it all, but God's heart is that people not perish but come to forgiveness and find salvation. All of them, the worst of the worst in our minds. God wants them to be saved. So to have the heart of God, we have to forgive. We must forgive. So now we've looked at a few things here quickly today. We've looked at the effect of prayer life. It has to be based on who God is, based on God. That kind of prayer is powerful and able to move mountains, able to help us even forgive. And we could talk about prayer more, but listen, the big punchline here today is we ought to pray in our hearts for our friends, for our family, because God can do wonderfully amazing things beyond what we can even imagine, if we just trust him with the things that are in our life. Simple prayer, god. Here's the decisions in front of me. God, what do you want, god, lead me? Oh, here's my family member. They're struggling. God, help them today to know that you're with them. God, here's my ugly heart. I'm having a hard time forgiving, but you said, miracle of miracles, that I could forgive. God, help me to forgive and see the wonderful things that God can do in our lives. God, I confess that I do not pray like I should, and what a wonderful advantage we have to be able to share these things and cast these things on you and you care for us. God, not only do you care for us, but, god, you're able to work in our lives. So, god, help it not to be theory this week that you would just help us, as believers, to trust you with the deepest things in our heart, our future and our hurts. God, help us to trust you, help us to pray and lift all these things to you. And God see what you do, because you're good and you're able to work. In Jesus' name we pray.