Powering UP America!

Key Scripture:  “Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.  I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”  Mark 11:20-25

NLT

Power Point:

     I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but this passage of scripture follows right on the heels of Jesus cleansing the temple and cursing the fig tree. After arriving in Jerusalem Jesus goes to the temple. The temple was the seat of all the activity in Jerusalem and it was supposed to be a place where people could freely offer their prayers to God. The moneychangers, and sacrifice providers had set up shop right there. Instead of being a house of God, the temple had become a den of thieves.  If you read those verses carefully you will see that Jesus turned the tables on them. He stopped what they were doing and then He must have wrapped His arms around the people who had come to worship and sat down and talked to them. It says that the people were astonished at His teaching. He was telling them Truth that would set them free.

     On His way out of the temple, He decides to eat some figs. As He passes by a fig tree, He finds no fruit. Gentle Jesus curses the tree and says, “You will never bear fruit again!” Was He just in a bad mood that day? I don’t think so. I think that His great heart was stirred up with compassion for those who wanted to follow Him, who wanted to worship their Father. The Pharisees and the “thieves” had put huge obstacles in their way. The fig tree was a symbol of a nation that had been created for God’s pleasure and delight, but the “thieves” had stolen it and killed the life in it. The nation could no longer bear good fruit. It had been created to show the world how much God loved His people and now they were so burdened under law after law after law that they could not do what they were created to do. Somehow they had slipped under the power of man instead of the power of God.

     Jesus made the “thieves” and the fruitless nation an object lesson that day didn’t He?  Do you think it would serve as a pattern over the years for nations whose life was being stolen from them?  I do.

Power Prayer For America:

Father, where the thieves have come in and destroyed, thank You for rebuking the destroyers for us. Thank you that this battle is not ours alone, but that it is Yours as well. We bless this land to be fruitful and multiply again. We bless it to carry the name of God, the goodness of God and the power of God wherever we go. We thank you that the nations will tremble when they see all the good that You do for us.

Let Your Truth keep marching on!

In Jesus Name.  Amen!