This is a
wonderful blessing that God has done to you, or for you, when you receive an
answer to your prayers quickly. But
what happens in the times when God is silent?
What happens to your faith when God isn’t speaking and you aren’t
receiving his miracles and signs like you had before? What do you do?
When we are
babies in Christ it is not unusual to ask God for a sign and receive it
immediately. It is not unusual to have a
problem, or a question, and ask God to help you with it and go to the Bible and,
there is your answer written in Black and White on the page. You can almost start to believe or think
that God is like a magic trick, whatever you ask for, and poof there it is.
God will
show off like this for a new believer, because he needs to increase their
faith. It’s like the first couple dates,
you are on your best behavior, and hide the bad behaviors you have, to
impress the person you are with. This is
like God. God wants to court you too,
just like at the beginning of a relationship.
God’s way of courting you is to impress you, and increase your faith, in
him. I promise you that just like a
relationship, this to will pass.
Not that
God will take away his goodness from you, but that he will cause you to lean, and
rely on him, while waiting for your needs to be met. In John 4: 48 Jesus is speaking to a royal
official from Capernaum whose son was home dying. This official had heard that Jesus had
returned to Cana in Galilee, the place where Jesus had performed his first
miracle, in turning water into wine. The
official was very worried about his dying son, and wanted to see Jesus, to ask
him to heal his son. (First, I would
like to note that this officer traveled from his town to where Jesus was,
without his sick son. We will speak on this later)
Jesus
responded, in what I consider to be a Jesus riddle, that we need to figure out,
but he said 4:48 Jesus spoke to him and said unless you see signs and miracles
happen you (people) never will believe (trust have faith) at all.
So
basically, I believe that Jesus is saying, here we go again, and not with an eye
roll, someone is asking me to heal their son, but they want me to perform
miracle, after miracle, and they need all these signs of my ability, to confirm
who I really am, why can’t they just believe!!
This made
me think of a baby, and how a baby is attached to its mother because the mother
is the source of survival, for the baby.
The mother feeds the baby, rocks the baby to sleep, and changes the baby.
The mother is constantly giving the baby reassurance that the baby will be
OK, and is safe. So what Jesus is saying
is, can we please grow up a little in faith.
Why do I need to perform miracles and signs for you, to have faith in me?
In verse 4:50
Jesus answers the official, after he begs Jesus to come back with him to heal
his child, who is on his death bed. Jesus
responds with Go in peace; your son will live! And the man put his trust in
what Jesus said and started home.
This takes
me back to the part I asked you to notice, the official never brought his
son! Now, I am not a mother, but I
would think that, if someone I loved so much, that I would travel to get them
healing, was sick, I would bring them with me.
I would scoop them up, and however necessary, I’d take them to Jesus,
instead of asking Jesus to come with me.
This takes more time and my loved one is very ill. The official did not! The official left his dying son alone, and
went to find Jesus. Also, notice that,
Jesus didn’t return with him to his home in Capernaum, he simply stated, your
son will live! Go in peace… and he went!
Please tell
me you see what I see!! Jesus made the
statement in 4:38 not for the official, but for the people around the
official. The official was already
coming in Faith! The official took his
first step of Faith, when he left his dying son at home, to find Jesus! Jesus already knew he activated his Faith by
coming and finding him. Jesus was
saying to all the people around with limited faith, why do I always have to
perform miracles and signs for you to believe in me.
Also,
notice that when Jesus told the official to go, he went! There wasn’t any begging and pleading with
Jesus. There wasn’t a royal official on
his knees trying to get Jesus to come home with him, to heal his son, no, he
went home. You know why he went
home? Because he believed! He believed that Jesus could heal his son, when
he left his dying son at home to find Jesus. He believed that Jesus had
already healed his son, when he was headed home.
His faith was what was pleasing to Jesus, and what I believe, caused Jesus
to heal him. If the official would have
come to Jesus with no faith, this would have gone a very different way, but
because he had faith enough to leave his child, find Jesus, and then walk away,
from Jesus with the belief his son would be healed, his son was healed.
In verse
4:51 it says the officials servants met him on his way home to tell him his son
lives, which is good news, you would think would cause the official to be
full of joy, and happiness, which I am sure he was, but his response, was, at what
time had his son begun to get better? At
what time had his son begun to get better?
I love this question!! I love it
because, he already knows the answer!
This is why he wasn’t overcome with excitement and joy, he
already knew his son was healed, and he was using this question of the time as a
confirmation of the healing Jesus had done in his son!
Praise
God. The official used this as a
stepping stone to get all his people in his household to believe in Jesus as
well! He asked the question about time,
because he needed to confirm to himself, and the people around him, that when
Jesus had told him that his son lives, that was the same time his son was
healed.
Do you
think that the faith it took this man to seek out Jesus was that of an immature
believer in God, or a mature believer in God?
To me, this was a mature believer in God.
He asked for healing for another person off of his faith and trust in
Jesus. His faith was large, to leave his
dying son home to find Jesus.
When God
leads you to the time when your faith has to be tested, and his signs and
miracles lessen in your life, you have the opportunity to continue to believe,
even when it doesn’t look promising. You
have the opportunity to remember the things in the past he has done for you and
say, I trust God. He is a faithful God
and he will supply all of my needs.
When you
spend time with God, in his word and in his presence, you are increasing your
knowledge and faith in him. You are like
a battery and recharging yourself, to face the day.
This is
very much like your cell phone. When you
take your phone off of the charger in the morning your phone is ready to go and
full of power. As you use your phone during the day it starts to lose power
and possibly not work properly. When you
spend time with God you are charging your spirit and your mind, to operate in
God’s power, and as you go through your day your mind has fought off
hundreds of messages, and attacks of Satan, your faith and power becomes
depleted.
This is why
we are to pray without ceasing. When we pray we are calling on the name
of Jesus to help us, and keep us charged, and protected. I know I personally have a phone charger at
work, in my car, in my kitchen, in my bedroom, and in my living room, so I am
covered wherever I am. We should start thinking of praying like this. You can pray anywhere, so start to think that praying is as important as
it is to keep you phone plugged in, and do it everywhere and at any time.
This takes
the immature Christian to the mature Christian, because you are leaning on,
relying in and trusting God, without needing to see his Miracles and Signs to keep you in faith. It’s a
simple and easy as staying plugged in to your power source, God.
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