Three Of The Most Offensive Verses in The Bible

Reference: Mark 11:22-24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. 23 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. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.  

Observation: This section of verses is offensive for so many reasons;
1) No one, that we know of, not even Jesus, has ever thrown a mountain into the sea simply by their words.
2) Jesus asks us to believe the impossible and then says we have no chance of getting it unless we do and “have no doubt in (y)our heart(s).” How can anyone say to Mt. Hood “go jump in the Pacific” and have no doubt in their heart--they would have to be crazy!
3) Then He tells us that if we believe for anything we will receive it; but we know that we have prayed for many things and not received them.
4) This is even more offensive because Jesus is such a reasonable person. He has to know that what He is saying makes no sense.
So what is this all about? Someone once said that God offends the mind to inform the spirit. We need to see that Jesus is pressing us as hard as He can to underline the value of faith.

When we look at other verses (The Lord’s Prayer for example) we see that God does not act outside of His will and our faith has to understand what that will is, and line up with it, for anything to happen. If it is not His will that mountian ain't going no where.
Still, in all our theology and sophisticated ways of dissecting the scripture, we must come back to this simple but profound point; God honors, responds to, acts in accordance with our faith. That is the point we must never forget.  

Application/Confession: I find myself, at times, giving into Christian fatalism. I start singing in my heart “what ever will be will be”. That is not a stance of faith. What I must do is to pursue a vital relationship with Jesus so that I know what He wants to do and then to ask, and keep on asking, in faith for it to happen.
I need to expect good things, answers to my most outrageous prayers. None of them are yet to the “throw the mountain into the sea” level. 

PRAYER: Lord, I believe You. Help my unbelief. Forgive me for my simple laziness--not pursuing the answers with aggression and “taking them by force” in the spirit. I want to see You act miraculously in my life.