A Hard Nut to Swallow
Matthew 17:14-21
How much faith do we have?
Photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash
When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” - Matt. 17:14-21
Do you believe you can heal in the name of Jesus, or do you believe that is foolish thinking?
We hear of people being healed in churches, and we say those preachers are charlatans, fooling the public to make money.
Perhaps they are. But Jesus told his disciples that they could do those things in his name, if they had a speck of faith.
So, why can’t we do them?
Sometimes we pray, along with many others, for a young child born prematurely, given little chance of survival, and that child lives. We attribute it to a miracle of prayer, but we don’t see ourselves as healers.
Why not?
We had faith. The child survived. Miracle healing took place. God did it, we tell ourselves.
Maybe that is what Jesus was cursing them for, believing they could cure the child, and not be a faithful believer in God’s power to do it.
We don’t need more faith. If we have even a little faith, we can move mountains. It may be how we approach the situation and what we believe.
Father in heaven, if it is your will, let it be so. That is how we approach it, but maybe we should ask for our will instead.
Father, please have mercy on this child and use your healing power to wipe away all disease from him/her.
Is that the right way?
If we believe it is possible in God’s hands, and we have faith in God’s mercy and grace, it will be so.
Jesus puts the blame on the faithless, and that is a tough nut to swallow for us who are looking for God’s help. Does God not respond if we doubt?
Is it wrong to pray that God does what is best for the person?
If we truly believe that we will live forever with God in His glory, what may be best for some is to join Him now, rather than later.
That is what is hardest to swallow for us.
More to come...