Proverbs 13:13 He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Those who come to Him (God) must believe that He is. That He is what? Yes, we understand that we must believe that He exists, but more than that, we must believe that He is and has what we are believing for. We need to trust the faith we have in Him because God’s integrity can be trusted. Num. 23:19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Jesus said to ask our Heavenly Father whatever it was we needed and to have faith in God’s will to bless us. On one hand, it is impossible to please God without faith, and on the other hand, we read in first Corinthians chapter twelve verse nine that God gives us the gift of faith when we need it. How amazing is that? The Lord God is making sure we can have faith that can be trusted because the Lord is the author and finisher of our faith. Heb. 12:2a Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. Talk about a loving win-win situation. Our Almighty God helps us believe and have faith in the fact that God loves and cares for us on an eternal level. This might be hard for some to get their finite minds around, but lo and behold, our infinite God cares for us and helps us trust the power of God’s faith in our lives.
In the Gospel of Matthew, there is a leper who comes to Jesus and says, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Matt. 8:2 And a man with leprosy came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The courage it took for the leper to come forward and talk with Jesus shows us the approachability that Jesus emanated as He walked among the people. The leper could see the powerful faith Jesus was ministering in and it helped him see that he could trust Jesus and the faith He had. The life of a leper was nothing short of hardship upon hardship. They were not allowed to participate in the normal events of social interaction that most people took for granted.
The Levitical laws prohibited lepers from taking part in what was considered normal interrelations with the people because lepers were deemed unhealthy and contagious. Jesus crosses this barrier of enforced law by healing the man of leprosy thus allowing the man to be reintroduced to society. I’m not making this sound trite, but if someone had said to Jesus, “You can’t touch him, he is a leper.” After healing the leper, Jesus could say, “What leprosy?” Matt. 8:3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus fulfilled the law by instructing the leper to go and be examined by the priests for an official pronouncement of being healed of a contagious disease and now allowed reentrance into society. Matt. 8:4 Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
This is the kind of faith that is available and possible when we believe in and walk with the Lord Jesus. The Lord said we would do greater things than He did. John 14:12 Timeless truth, I tell you: ‘whoever believes in me, those works which I have done he will also do, and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the presence of my Father.’ Why then, is there opposition to this kind of faith in our day? Why do many in Christian circles say these types of miracles no longer happen because we are in a more enlightened time? Really? Discrediting faith in God with unbelief and disregarding the power of God in our day is an expression of being enlightened. Prov. 13:13 He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded. Instead of brushing off the possibility of having the faith to do greater things than Jesus did, why not trust God that the seeds of that kind of faith are in us because Jesus is in us?
If we are no different than the Scribes and Pharisees who mocked Jesus for having faith that could heal the woes of mankind, then all there is left is a ritualistic milky toast belief that can be tossed here and there with any attack or opposition. Prov. 24:10 If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength! No saints! We are more than a theological argument that is limited to the secularism of man. Our faith in Jesus can be trusted because it is God who made a way for us to be reconciled to Himself through Christ. Therefore, God’s plan of salvation is flawless. Had man designed the salvation plan, the plan would have been corrupt from the first words written to describe the ways that must be followed. The billions of amendments that would have been added to that plan by every interest group throughout history would be mind-boggling.
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” This is a bold statement. The Lord did not waste words. Jesus is either your Lord and saviour or He is not. That choice of faith in Him is our personal decision we must make. Faith in Jesus is a faith that we can trust. Blessings and peace be in us all.
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