GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:22
Have Faith in God
It often takes more than one experience to learn. Parents and teachers know that lessons often have to be repeated. For example, on one job, I had to repair truck tires—remove the tire from the rim, locate the leak in the tube, identify the cause of the puncture, repair the tube, reinsert it into the tire, mount the tire on the rim, and inflate it to the correct pressure. When the workload became heavy, the employer hired an assistant. I explained and demonstrated the repair process to the new employee, then I went to another job. Later, I returned to find tires lying on the floor, but only one had been repaired. Although there are different types of rims, the process is much the same. However, the new employee could not apply the lesson to the different rim types, so I went through the process with him, repeating the lesson.
Regarding faith, Jesus had to repeat his lesson several times. For example, in Mark, as Jesus and his disciples walked from Bethany to Jerusalem a day or so after Jesus had cursed the deceptive fig tree, Peter noticed its withered condition and pointed it out. “And answering, Jesus said, ‘Have faith in God.’” (Mark 11:22) Similarly, in Matthew, he repeated this lesson after the disciples failed in their prayer for a young boy (Matthew 17:20). In Luke, he emphasized faith again when teaching about overcoming temptation (Luke 17:6).
The premise is simple: “Have faith in God,” but the practice is difficult. Children are potty trained, taught to tie their shoes, dress themselves, and clean up; in other words, they learn self-reliance early. Robert Fulghum popularized the idea that everything he needed to know he learned in kindergarten—sharing, kindness, and cleaning up. Similarly, after a lesson, one teacher told her students, “I’m not your mama.” Yet, children are also taught in Sunday school to have faith in God. On the one hand, they learn self-reliance; on the other, they learn faith in God.
In practice, taking problems to God is a real test—a lesson often repeated. Sometimes the struggle is wanting what is not good; other times, it’s resisting God’s guidance. Yet Jesus still says: “Have faith in God.”
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