Saturday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 5, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 21:18-22 (NKJV)
21:18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Devotion
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Here we have another passage that can easily be misunderstood by simply overlooking one word, “believing.” Whenever the temptation comes to think that God will grant our desires if we pray hard enough or long enough or whatever enough, we do well to remember this portion of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is the essence of “believing,” the essence of fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things.
As God’s beloved children, we are called upon to always seek Him and His ways. In doing so, we come to understand what Luther wrote about this petition: “The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.” If you have faith and do not doubt, your prayers are always answered, but always answered in accordance with God’s will.
The fig tree, as with all of creation, was given to man. Fruit trees are supposed to bear fruit so that man may eat. This one didn’t, and thus was cursed. God, in His mercy, has taken us from being cursed, dead branches, and grafted us onto the living Vine so that we might bear the fruit of forgiveness and life. We need not fear God’s wrath, for we have been baptized into Christ.
Prayer: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy will; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
