“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:14-22 | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Matthew 21:14

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

The silver lining in our sorrows is that they are more likely to impel us to turn to Jesus, and to receive his healing.

¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

They were indignant when they saw the wonderful things he did. Do not be surprised to find yourself punished for your excellence, your spiritual giftedness, for anything which makes you stand out, and threaten the less gifted.

¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

The natural response to the glory of God comes forth more easily from children.

¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree

¹⁸ Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

In line with the parable of talents. Gifts not used wither.

Since, the fruit of the fig tree begins to appear about the same time as the leaves, the appearance of leaves in full bloom should have indicated that the fruit was already growing. Jesus’s actions are symbolic, indicating the hypocrisy of those who have the appearance of bearing fruit, but in fact are not.

²⁰ When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

²¹ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Jewish teacher’s use of hyperbole.

If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

1) How can we have faith and not doubt?

Pray to.

2) How can we tell if we have the faith that ensures we “receive whatever we ask for in prayer?

We pray for something, and then?

Are we building up a lot of contingency plans for what to do if God does not come through? Is our prayer simply another string to our bow?

Are we prepared to let our own plans, schemes and subterfuges rest once we have prayed?

Sometimes, when I pray, it’s as if I see Jesus in front of me, see him nod, and I just know that God has heard my prayer and will grant what I have asked.

And other times, more often than not, I pray half-heartedly, with hope rather than shining faith.

Even though prayer is all gain, and we just get to ask God for anything we want, how feebly and half-heartedly we pray so often. With so little faith, almost as if we don’t want to embarrass God with our requests.

* * *

It is recorded that at the Transfiguration, And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.’

One secret of effective prayer is simply “seeing” Jesus with the eyes of faith, and chatting to him rather than sending our earnest requests into the void.

Learning to “see Jesus” has been transformational in the spiritual walk of many heroes of the faith.

See Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, shorter version

and chapter from the eponymous book by his son.