Mustard Seed & Faith Question?

[tomscf]

Hi Someone asked this question and i think it deserves an honest answer!!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
If “nothing will be impossible to you”, then if we ask to cure cancer tonight, cancer should disappear. Right? Yet nothing happens. Note that if we take the Bible less-than-literally here, the statement “nothing will be impossible to you” becomes “lots of things will be impossible to you,” and that would mean that Jesus is lying. A favorite Christian rationalization for why God does not answer our prayer to eliminate cancer is because “it would take away free will.” The logic: If you pray and God answers your prayer, then God would have revealed himself to you, and you would know that God exists. That would take away your free will to believe in him. Of course, if this is true, then by default all of Jesus’ statements about prayer in the Bible are false. It means that God cannot answer any prayer. Also, why is a God who must remain hidden like this incarnating himself and writing the 1? Was he fibbing? If Jesus is perfect, why wouldn’t he speak the truth? Why doesn’t a prayer to cure cancer worldwide tomorrow work?

 

[MT1926]

If “nothing will be impossible to you”, then if we ask to cure cancer tonight, cancer should disappear. Right?

This is from Matthew 17:20. I just wanted to point out that in this chapter Jesus is letting His disciples know that the reason they were unable to exorcise the demon was because their faith was impeded by their presumption. They presumed just because they were Jesus disciples that nothing was impossible for them.
You need to first ask yourself why are you asking to cure cancer tonight? Is it to test Jesus to see if He is “lying”? Is it because you want to personally gain something? Is it because you believe the world should be allowed to make poor choices without having to suffer any consequences? etc… None of these are asking in faith, they are asking out of personal gain.

For us to truly ask in faith means we have faith that God knows what is best for us. We need to align our wills with the will of God, only when our faith is aligned with God’s will “nothing will be impossible to you”. Wanting what we want isn’t faith it is desire.

A favorite Christian rationalization for why God does not answer our prayer to eliminate cancer is because “it would take away free will.”

Yeah I would disagree with that line of reasoning also. This turns God into nothing more that a sugar daddy.
God answers all prayers. When we ask He responds by telling us…

YES,
NOT YET,
or
I HAVE A BETTER PLAN

God might not answer our prayers to heal us because He plans on bringing about a greater good from our suffering. Not sure if you are a father yourself but if you are what wouldn’t you do for your children. If God gave you the choice of answering YES and taking away your cancer or answering “I HAVE A BETTER PLAN” and using your suffering to bring your children back to the faith and salvation which would you choose?

The logic: If you pray and God answers your prayer, then God would have revealed himself to you, and you would know that God exists. That would take away your free will to believe in him. Of course, if this is true, then by default all of Jesus’ statements about prayer in the Bible are false.

Maybe you could explain a little better here. I’m not really following your logic? God just answered my prayers the other day and I’m pretty sure I still have free will. On a side note I’ve been praying and suffering for three years before discovering the BETTER PLAN God had in store for me. And this isn’t the first time this happened in my life. Some of the new plans God has shown me have been mind blowing.

If Jesus is perfect, why wouldn’t he speak the truth? Why doesn’t a prayer to cure cancer worldwide tomorrow work?

He did speak the truth. You just aren’t hearing the answer you want to hear because He has a better plan, and your will won’t line up with His so he can give you a better answer.

Hope this helps,

God Bless

 

[phoage]

Jesus prayed to His Father, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.”

He really did not want to be scrourged and executed. He had probably seen a crucifixtion before as the Reomans had been in the area since fefore His birth. He knew what was involved.

And you cannot say that Jesus did not have faith. Yet His prayer was answered, just not the way the man Jesus would have liked. The Fathers will was done and Jesus was crucified.

Patrick
AMDG

 

[Theo2]

Well there are some conditions. One you have to have faith. True, unwavering faith. True faith means in part to trust the will of God. To say otherwise is to make oneself God as He has to do as we say.

 

[hergratefulchild]

Was he fibbing? If Jesus is perfect, why wouldn’t he speak the truth? Why doesn’t a prayer to cure cancer worldwide tomorrow work?

This is from my reflections of this same text recently part of a daily reading at mass. My understanding at this time and in the context of the preceeding texts is this:

If we have faith in God, even as small as a mustard seed, it will grow not by our own efforts but the the will The Father and if we ask for a mountain to be moved it will… this can be seen figuratively for what seems impossible for us will become possible, no matter how big it seems and in this conversation with Jesus the disciples are asking Jesus why they could not cast out a demon. It is through faith that demons are cast out, even ones that seem so imovable to our own efforts, if we ask God for help, he will remove those demons from our lives and also the life of others.

 

[Dan_Defender]

God knows the heart. If you prayed to get something and after a time limit set by you decided it wasn’t given, then you didn’t have faith and trust in God to begin with, and you didn’t approach God with humility. Pray like Jesus did, saying your will not mine. Prayer in faith works miracles. Like St Paul saving the people from the shipwreck at Malta.