Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation–Mark 11:25

Posted by Seth on Aug 18, 2009 in Daily Devotions |

Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation–Mark 11:25

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Mark 11:25 wherein we are challenged toward forgiveness that we might enjoy intimate, effective prayer.

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

When Jesus gave this instruction to his disciples they were likely still awestruck over the fig tree that had withered at Jesus’ command. It was strange enough that he had thought it necessary to curse a plant; how much more when it then began to suddenly die! But like many other of Jesus’ activities, he didn’t intend this for anyone’s amusement, stunning though it was. No, there was a lesson in it that Jesus wanted to teach about faith–true, fruit-bearing faith. The disciples were to understand that God listened to prayers of faith, prayers from truly faithful people who were looking for God to be honored through their lives. So, to curb the “yippees!” that the disciples may have been ready to utter after Jesus’ words, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (V. 24), he gave them something to cause a bit more reflection, a clarification of sorts. Jesus wanted them to understand that prayer was not about tree-killing tricks, about magic words and circus acts. Prayer was to be aimed at seeing God’s kingdom come in the world, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

And so, it was of utmost importance that the disciples understood that there was so much that potentially stood in the way of effective prayer. Following the course of what we may know as the “Lord’s prayer” quoted in part moments ago, the focus here is on clean relationships between one another, of forgiveness being given to any with whom we might have a problem. What this does for the person of prayer is release any pride that we have in ourselves, pride rooted in our holding of something against another to whom we are feeling superior. God is not impressed with the one who holds himself high and does in fact ignore him when he prays. For when grudges are held as we look up to heaven, a dark cloud stands between us and our King even though we may think that our offender stands below us, out of the way. We consider ourselves worthy of God’s ear at a time when He is not even offering it, apart from our proclamation of forgiveness to the one who has given offense. This then is the lesson: We cannot effectively pray according to the will of God when we are in essence boasting in ourselves and pursuing self-justification. We know little of the extent to which we have been forgiven, having offended Almighty God as a puny human, when we can’t even release a fellow sinner. It is the very assertion of our own justification or power that renders our prayers utterly powerless. Humbly forgive; intimately and effectively pray.

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