Mk 11:11-26 The Sky’s The Limit. Not Really.

Mk 11:11-26  The Sky’s The Limit.  Not Really.

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Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.  When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”

If you could ask the Lord right now for anything, what would it be?  Think about it and remember, “Ask and you shall receive.”  So, what would you ask for? 

Did you ask for forgiveness?

Christ told his disciples, “When you pray, I tell you, all that you ask for, you will receive it and it shall be yours.”  And then he said, “When you pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that the Father in turn may forgive you your transgressions.” 

There are a lot of good things (very good things in fact) that do not come naturally.  Forgiveness is one of them.  When we seek to forgive we are dying to ourselves. When we seek to be forgiven, we are placing ourselves in harm’s way.  Though forgiving is a very good thing to do, it does not come naturally.  Both these acts of love defy the laws of survival just like a rocket defies the laws of gravity.  To punch through the clouds requires a lot of rocket fuel and thrust.  To punch through Heavenly clouds requires a lot of grace and trust.    Like the sky, asking for forgiveness is one of the toughest things to punch through.  To forgive others is a close second.  Supernatural virtues do not come easily because - simply put - they don’t come naturally. 

So what must I do?  

It required years of constant thinking and planning for the space shuttle to lift off.  To get heavenly lift off of our body and soul requires years of constant prayer.  It takes years because praying doesn’t come easily.  And praying doesn’t come easily because it doesn’t come naturally.  And the reason why prayer is hard to do is the same reason why punching through the open sky is hard to do.  There are a lot of forces within us that try to stop us, and one of the most powerful is laziness. 

Laziness.  We made it!  Yes, we made it from non-existence to existence.  We are here!  We have gone from non-life to life.  And “being” is not just anything; it is everything!  And like everything, our very being must be nourished to grow and must learn to fight in order to grow.  Laziness is a force that works against us.  Laziness takes life and twists it back to non-life; it takes fresh fruit and makes it gross.  When we just sit around trying to look pretty we get gross, like that fig tree in the desert with tons of leaves but no fruit.  Something is wrong with this.  Something is very wrong.  It should be producing fruit.  Instead, it’s just standing there looking kind of silly. And right now, we are looking kind of silly.

Isn’t it amazing at how the government has grown in the last fifty years?  Isn’t it amazing at how the government is trying to regulate and moderate everything, even what we eat and drink?  Aren’t you amazed at how much money the government keeps pumping into education, welfare, defense, tolerance and alternative energies and still we have millions of ill-prepared students, millions of unemployed Americans, millions more who hate us, thousands of teens who bully and massacre us, and tons of waste around us?  

Why haven’t we solved these problems?  Because we keep trying to resuscitate a gross mentality; the mentality that “you can do whatever you want” and someone else will handle it.

We’re not seeking to be held accountable and we’re not holding a gun to anyone to be held accountable.  There’s little to no incentive to be responsible.  There’s plenty of back stepping, moving away, walking away and going away that is going on here! 

Everyone is apologizing except those who need to apologize; and everyone who is taking a stand or standing their ground is being kicked to the ground.

Jesus, the Son of God, had to take care of our problems.  He had to lead the way.  He was the first to drive out those selling and buying near the temple.  He was the first to overturn the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling.  He was the first to do it for us.  But he didn’t ask us to stay put or even to walk away.  Instead, he demanded that we pick up our cross and carry it all the way.

We think that prayer is the answer to all our problems.  It isn’t.  It is the answer to all our weaknesses and inadequacies.  Prayer is the way our Lord joined forces and conquered. By ourselves we are inadequate.  This may explain why so many marriages are woefully wrong, our parents and families are woefully inadequate, our children are woefully rude and our society is woefully unbalanced. 

Let’s start thinking, planning and praying.  Let’s lead the way in harm’s way and dying to ourselves for mankind’s sake.  Let’s lift off where the sky is not the limit.  Let's pray like the Lord and get results that are out of this world.