Faithful on Fridays Blog

One of the reasons I love reading the gospels is the variety of people Jesus ministered to: military or religious leaders, children, the blind or deaf, paralyzed, demon possessed, and the list goes on. However, there’s always one commonality: faith. These people with unique circumstances believed that God would save, heal, or rescue and Jesus always commended them. Remember, faith is a divine persuasion, trust, and certainty that God will do what He said He’d do,

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. Hebrews 11:6

Only Luke recorded Jesus connecting the devil and faith in the Parable of the Sower; you may have missed it. When God’s Word is heard by a hard heart (8:11-13) the devil comes and snatches it, therefore, they cannot believe and be saved. Jesus reminded us that the devil has limited authority and stealing seed, His Word, from a hard heart is an easy task. But He continued that a shallow heart is also in spiritual trouble since there’s no root for faith, consequently, when testing comes they’ll believe for a while but ultimately fall away. 

There’s a fascinating story in Judges 3 that relates God testing Israel for the purpose of teaching war; that’s the lower story, in the upper story we’re in a war as well; we fight the enemy of our soul when we stand in faith during times of testing and troubles.

… when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. James 1:2-3 NLT

The disciples were tested by Jesus during a tremendous storm and their response to Him was (Mark 4:38), “Don’t you care?” Of course He cared but His higher purpose for them was to be fully persuaded that He cared; that’s true for us as well. There’s always a purpose in our testing and troubles but we learn to trust Him in the midst of it. 

Fear, as Jesus said, always leads to lack of faith, so our job is to stand in certainty that He’ll care for us in His time and manner.

A Jewish ruler named Jairus spoke words of faith to Jesus (Mark 5:22-43) about his 12 year old daughter who was almost dead from sickness, and in fact died, but Jesus was interrupted by another woman who had been battling sickness for 12 years. Coincidence? I don’t think so. One lived healthy for 12 years and the other lived sick for 12 years but both were miraculously healed because of faith. 

“Do not fear, only believe,” Jesus said.

Be encouraged today that faith and fear cannot live together; if you’re being tested, like Jairus or the bleeding woman, let faith fill your heart for the victory will eventually come.