May 3, 2022

Matthew 9: 28-30 (NIV)

He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored.

God has a fixed time and an ordained purpose, and He who controls the limits of our lives also determines the time of our deliverance.*

Faith. We walk by it. We are saved by it. Without it, it is impossible to please God. I have faith – I believe that my faith is very strong, in fact – but I still have questions about faith. If I had been one of these blind men and Jesus asked me if I believed he was able to heal me, I would have confidently said, “Yes, I do.” But Jesus would have known that there was more to my answer than that. I would have had faith in his ability to heal me but not so much in whether he would actually do it. Is that wrong? Is that a sign that my faith is weak?

Follow Jesus’ ministry and you will see that he “restored sight to many blind people but not to every blind person he encountered. He healed many lepers but not every leper in Israel. He did his Father’s will.”* That pretty much sums up my philosophy on faith. My faith is not made stronger by believing that Jesus can heal, but by trusting that his failure to heal is his Father’s will and that it serves his purpose; and that his failure to heal does not mean that he has left the building. In Hebrews 13: 5, we are reminded of God’s promise to the Israelites, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” I believe that we can claim that promise, too.

Perhaps your desire to receive what you want is stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled.*