Faith

There will be a number of posts about faith. Faith is a key principle to harnessing the energy of our hearts. A couple of days ago, I was reading in the Gospel According to St Matthew, where the Lord states in chapter 21,

21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

 Many Gospel scholars believe the idea of moving mountains is metaphorical and not literal. In my study of the scriptures there are multiple meanings and symbolisms. I believe that unless there is something that implies the statement is strictly metaphorical/symbolic in nature, such as when something is compared to or likened to something else, then the scripture has a literal meaning as well.

So, in this case, an actual mountain could be removed/moved. How? I don't know. Maybe it ends up being a volcano and blows apart. Or, we know there are higher and lower laws that govern nature, and the Lord certainly knows the higher laws.

In any case, it really doesn't matter how the mountain could be moved only that it can be moved by faith. Even a metaphorical mountain that is in the way of what we desire in live can be moved.

The key is our faith, where we "doubt not."

Verse 22 is interesting because there are a couple of ways of reading it. The first is how it is punctuated in the King James Version of the Bible, which is how it's quoted above. To get our desire (in the case of prayer this is what we're asking for), we must be believing, and then we will receive.

But let's remove the last comma so verse 22 reads, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive."

Removing the one comma adds new meaning. We ask already believing that we will receive.

Believing is vital. But most of us don't really understand what belief is. For most believing is more like wanting it to be true, wishing or hoping something will be true, but they're not really convinced it is true so there's some doubt. Maybe not a lot of doubt, but just enough that they are not believing that what they are asking is a reality.

If we don't really, truly believe we can and will receive something then our asking is only half-hearted. Maybe three-quarters or more, but we're definitely not asking will full purpose of heart, with full intent.

The Epistle of James is another place we can read of this type of asking. In chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 it states:

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Asking needs to be done in faith "nothing wavering" which means not doubting or not being doubtful. As verse 6 describes, doubt is like being tossed about by external factors. We might compare it to being a boat without a rudder.

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