After our Holy Week together, through the next 50 days, leading up to Pentecost, we are going to take a deeper look each week at different encounters that individuals have with Jesus after the Resurrection. This week we are going … Continue reading
After our Holy Week together, through the next 50 days, leading up to Pentecost, we are going to take a deeper look each week at different encounters that individuals have with Jesus after the Resurrection. This week we are going … Continue reading
You ever wondered how God sees you? What does He see when He looks at you? How does God view you? You know what God is? God is an optimist. God sees the best in you. Look at what we … Continue reading
Towards the end of Mark 5, Jesus performs two miracles. First, a man named Jairus comes to Him and says that his daughter is dying, could Jesus help. Jesus begins going to his home. Along the way, a woman who … Continue reading
Just because you have faith, it doesn’t mean that you’ve always got it figured out, or that it always makes sense. Just because you believe, it doesn’t mean that all of life will always make sense, and that everything will always be easy.
Sometimes, you will believe. Sometimes, you will know that things are right, or that things are going to be ok in the end, or that God is going to work everything out. You know it. Really, you do. You believe.
But, you still have doubts. You still worry. You still are afraid. You believe. But, it’s hard. Today, in Mark 9: 23 – 25, we see one of my favorite passages that deals with this. Listen to what it says today:
And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
This dad came to Jesus and said, please help my son. Jesus said, if you believe, all things are possible. And dad says, I do, I believe. But, help my unbelief! What can we learn from this passage about the times when we believe, but struggle.
First, do what’s right. This dad was struggling but unbelief, but He went to Jesus anyway. He knew that Jesus was truth and was help. He didn’t really understand it, or have it figured out, or really know what to do. But he knew that Jesus was life. He did the right thing.
So should we. If you struggle, keep reading. Keep praying. Keep worshiping. Keep doing the things that draw you close to Jesus. The dad struggled, but he was faithful. And good things happened.
Second, ask for help. Ask Jesus to help you. Ask for strength. Ask for belief. Ask for that hope. When the dad, when he knew that belief was needed, he said – help me! Help my unbelief. Help my doubts.
When you doubt, don’t turn away from Jesus, turn to Jesus. Don’t run from Him, run to Him. And when you do that, you will find that He will actually give you the strength and the faith that you need.
Today, we may doubt. God is there to help us, in these doubts. He won’t leave us there. Today, even when we doubt, may we turn to Him!
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What are Christians to do?
That’s a big, important question. What are we to do?
Well Scripture tells us a lot – Jesus gives us the great command – Love the Lord with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
He gives us the great commission – go into all the world, making disciples and baptizing them in my name.
We are told by the prophets to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
We are told to forgive. To pray. To take care of the less fortunate. There are a lot of thing we are supposed to “do.”
But what are supposed to do first? It all, every last bit of it, starts today with what Paul writes in Romans 4:
For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Abraham literally left everything that he had to follow God. He left his home, his people, his family, his very life to follow God to a place that he did not even know. He was obedient. He did stuff for God!
But, for him, and for us, it all starts with this. Faith. It all starts with faith in God. It all starts with belief. Everything.
Ever act of goodness, mercy, justice, truth. All these things – they are all birthed in faith.
For the Christian, for our lives, it all starts with faith. We are in an “inside-out” religion. The first thing that God wants to change is our hearts. As He changes our hearts, He will have our actions and our lives.
What is the sacrifice God desires? A broken and a contrite heart. God wants our hearts. He wants our faith. He wants our belief. He wants our love.
And if He has that, He will have our actions.
What are we to do? Place our full faith and hope in Jesus Christ. And in doing that, God will have all our lives and all our actions.
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