Do you ever compare yourself to another regarding faith? What is faith any way? How do you know if you have faith? Faith in what?
“And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Matthew 13:58 NIV
If you read the Gospel of Matthew, you will land on this verse about people lacking faith. You will land on the core issue that we can all suffer from. What's that? Lack of faith. Lack of belief. Lack of trust and a lack of surrender. We set an expectation on God and can get frustrated or even turned off when it doesn't go exactly the way we asked. Heck, the people who knew Jesus through his growing years could not believe Jesus was who He was. James, the brother of Jesus, needed a resurrection to figure it out finally!
One thing that comes out to me when I read the Gospels is that faith did the healing. Faith was necessary for miracles to happen. So many didn’t, and so many more didn't have it. They had to find it, and once it was found, didn't things certainly get different for them?
In the first miracle recorded, Jesus turns water into wine. It's a pretty nice thing to be able to do. However, when you read that account, you should notice that Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew exactly what to do and who could do it. Her faith was clear and very specific. However, Mary pushes the need, and Jesus does what He does as part of the miracle. The faith that Mary had was needed to see it through. It was not a parlor trick. A friend was in need, and there was no other solution to the problem. Fortunately, Mary had Jesus right there at that moment, and Jesus was willing to do what she wanted to be done. He even took the request for wine and made some excellent wine!
Luke, the guy who did the most research on the life of Jesus we are told, writes:
“He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.” Luke 18:38-43 NIV
Reading more of that gospel, you will also encounter a fellow named Jairus who came to Jesus because he had no other place to go and believed Jesus could heal his daughter. Jesus sets out to visit the little girl, and a woman touches his cloak on the way. Interestingly, the little girl was 12 years old, and the lady touching Jesus had been bleeding for 12 years. Interesting detail. Nothing more was said about that, but it was interesting. We also encounter blind man and believers who like to rebuke the requests of Jesus.
“Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Luke 8:47-50 NIV
So what happens? Well, the bleeding lady stops bleeding. Jesus seeks her out. He tells her that it was her faith that healed her. However, that faith was in Jesus, and through Jesus, God provided healing. Whatever she was doing for those twelve years prior didn’t work. This turning to Jesus was a last resort, and it required faith she didn’t have earlier because she could not have since Jesus was starting his ministry. She was desperate in her ways and now turned to God through Jesus. It was a true belief brought on by emptying herself. She just wanted to touch his garments and knew even that would affect a change. Ever get so desperate that you finally directed your attention to God?
“While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Luke 8:49-50 NIV
What about the little girl? She is an example of our faith in something on behalf of another. Her dad is told not to bother the teacher any longer. No need. The outcome was the outcome. However, Jesus steps in and tells Jairus believe, and she will be healed. Jesus tells folks around to stop crying. The girl is just sleeping. It was easy for Jesus to say since He knew what He was about to do. They, on the other hand, knew what dead looked like. So interesting. A man is turning to God in his most desperate moment, and people are saying not to. Have you encountered this in your life?
What a very pointed encounter with Jesus. We have a believer calling out to Jesus. Some "believers" rebuke the guy. He stays true to his faith in Jesus, which gets Jesus’s attention and comes with a question. Once asked and answered, Jesus did what the fellow wanted, and since he believed Jesus could get it done. So Jesus gives him his wish but adds, “your faith is what healed you.” Don’t miss that—important. You would also notice that the bleeding lady was being crowded out. It took her to persist to get where she needed to get with Jesus for her miracle to happen.
Countless times in the history of Jesus' life, we encounter other examples of things going right for people in various circumstances. You might remember the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and lame people walking. You might remember more people coming back to life. When you revisit those accounts, you will notice faith was there, and Jesus even says that your faith made it happen. However, the people with that faith also had to get to the place or into the situation to affect the miracle.
One of the accounts that is one of my favorites was that of the Roman soldier. The Catholics must like it a lot as well because they even use his words during Holy Mass. "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but say the words, and I shall be healed.”
In this account, a Roman soldier, someone who respected Jesus and also believed what he was told about Him. That soldier knew the only way to heal the young servant would be a request to Jesus Didn’touching. Didn’t have to bring the servant to Jesus. Just had to ask. Jesus was so impressed with the soldier's faith that He referred to it, and of course, that faith allowed for the healing.
We naturally have stories of miracles that didn't happen. We didn't read those times when people prayed for an outcome, and that outcome didn't happen. Have you had this happen to you? I, for sure, have had this happen to me. So, how do you feel about that?
For me, I think you can boldly ask God for outcomes. You can genuinely wish for them and know that God can change things. He can do whatever He wants. However, it isn't always what we want. That's where this idea of trust and surrender comes from.
In the story of the Roman soldier, we would not read that the soldier came to Jesus fully expecting healing and then returned home to a dead servant. The model we got there was that the servant would die if the Roman soldier did nothing. So, if that servant died by going to Jesus, it was an expected outcome. However, by going to Jesus, there was a chance things would turn differently. As was written in Matthew, indeed, it happened. Servant healed.
We have those examples in Luke where Jesus made it very clear that faith healed people and affected a different outcome than the apparent one. But it also required getting yourself into a situation where you could lean specifically into that faith to get a chance at a miracle.
That's the point. The model of that faith was sort of a why not and a full belief that the only way something would turn would be to get with Jesus. Unfortunately, the Bible stories demonstrate a very immediate result when getting with Jesus. However, we should all know that it doesn’t always work out that way. God, through our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, is no genie in a bottle. He isn’t to be your emergency brake or the eject button when the plane is crashing. We have Jesus once again helping us understand that during the temptations when Satan told Him to toss himself off a high point because God would surely send angels to catch Him. Jesus, of course, said you are not to put God to the test. So we shouldn’t.
When Jesus healed Jairus’s daughter, it would be that Jairus thought Jesus would heal her. She wasn’t supposed to die first! Jairus probably didn’t want to get that shock and that sadness. He just wanted whatever was killing his daughter to stop. He also didn’t add to give her fertility, a relationship with someone that would last forever, and a deep, loving relationship with Him. He was going for healing. So what did he get? Death, a bunch telling him to give in, it’s over, and eventually, an outcome was a miracle. It’s just not probably the way Jarius wanted it. Miracle, nonetheless, with an outcome that works, too!
So that’s just it. You pray for an outcome, and when it doesn’t happen, how do you handle it? Does it mean you lack faith? Perhaps. After all, you do need a full all-in faith, it seems. But even with that, outcomes will not always go how you want. It’s how you adapt to those outcomes that define your life story. It also reveals just how much of a relationship you have with God. How invested are you in it?
So, does faith matter? Yes, very much so. There are so many examples of it written in the Bible, and these are not just some stories written by some fiction writers. You have seen what faith can do in those stories and all around you. We need to keep the faith. Believe fully. Be specific in our requests and be willing to live with the outcomes that God knows best for the situation.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you are truly wonderful. You are worthy of my full faith, and I am sorry when I lack it. You do not have to prove anything to me, yet it took a while to trust and surrender. Even still, I try to take that back at times. Thank you for the reminder and the examples in the Bible. Thank you for sharing those stories so I could be reinforced in how it all works. Thank you for the miracles in my life. Thank you for my faith and your grace, mercy, and love. Please help us deepen our faith, trust you, and surrender our lives to your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus, my Savior and Lord. Amen.
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