TO HAVE A FAITH LIKE THAT

When was the last time that you share your Testimony of what God has done for you….(not just a simple “God has blessed me” kind of remark) but something that reflects your faith in the will of God no matter what the outcome was and only He can be glorified in it. Maybe, something has happened in your life that has blurred your spiritual vision and you think has hindered your faith. Have you been discouraged, disappointed in someone and somehow allowed God to become part of that equation? Maybe because of some disappointment in your life, you have used it as an excuse to walk away from God or God’s people because you have lowered your expectations of God so that you won’t be so disappointed the next time. Sweet friend, your doubting will continue to grow and take over your influence of God’s faithfulness to what you believe about Him and what you believe He has said, and if you are not careful at some point you will begin to murmur and complain and become your own stumbling block in overcoming your lack of faith and trust in the One that you once believed in and trusted. God never walks away, we are the ones that so quickly turn from Him, because we allow our disappointments to shadow over what God does and does not do for us when we should be saying to ourselves and others, “…Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this did not Job sin with his lips” Job 2:10. Our doubting God can turn to anger towards Him if not careful, and will eventually separate us from seeing the truth as it really is. If your faith can cast out your doubt, then what do you think that your doubt will cast out? Guard your faith and build it up by feeding it the Word of God, for it will be most useful to you during troublesome times that are sure to come! How is it that we can appear to have faith and yet unbelief in a situation. Often times we are not sure if that little bit of faith that we have is sufficient or not and feel like the man in Mark 9:24 when he told Jesus that he had faith, but He needed the Lord to help his unbelief. Sometimes, it is because we may know that God can do a thing, but we question if He will do it for us.

 

The fact that the father asked Jesus to help his unbelief, shows that while he knew that he had some faith, he wasn’t sure how much faith he had to have in his situation in order to get his son healed of demon possession. In desperation he casts any doubts or fears that he may have had upon Jesus and begged for mercy and help. Why did Jesus grant this man’s request? Did he not say that he had unbelief? The answer lies in the man’s own confession when he said that he believed. Jesus said in Mark 9:23 ”If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”. Jesus was not requiring some type of measurement of faith from the man, but simply, an "if thou wouldst believe" kind of faith.  We must recognize the power that Jesus offers and releases to us if and when we will simply, believe. Even the disciples wavered in their faith and the Lord rebuked them for it. They were not able to heal the young boy because of their own lack of faith. The light was not going off in their heads at that point that they, were trying to heal the boy in their own power and words.

 

That is the very reason that many of our own prayers are not answered, because we are praying within our own power over a situation with wrong motives. I hate to hear people tell other people something like, “you did not get your prayers answered because your faith was not strong enough”. I hate to disagree with them but, my Bible says there is only one kind of faith and that is the kind that you either have or you don’t have. The disciples learned this as well when one of them ask Jesus in Luke 17:5-6 “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Jesus never taught degrees of faith. On the contrary, Jesus taught that you either had faith or you didn’t. Jesus taught that the faith as a grain of mustard seed was more than sufficient to accomplish all that we might need or expect from God. It is fascinating to learn that the mustard seed is a tiny seed that produces one of the largest plants in the world. The black mustard plant in Israel grows to be over 12 feet tall. Jesus purposely chose to use the mustard seed as an illustration because of this very fact. Faith, no matter how small, will open the windows of Heaven and call forth the grace of God into our lives, if we will only surrender it in a child-like faith trust, that reaches out it's arms to Jesus and says, "Jesus, help me up where You are". To have a faith like that......

 

Loving you today sweet friend,

Bren