Have you ever considered how little we have been taught to really believe? This thought has been twirling around in my mind these last few days…

See, growing up in the church and in a Christian home, I was always taught to pray. And everybody would say to “have faith” and “believe”.. and they would tell me “with God all things are possible” [Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27] (which, by the way, I think Ohio has the best state motto ever). 

And those things are all good to do and know and believe. 

But that’s the key — I think that all too much, we’ve been brought up to do just the opposite.

We’ve had it incorporated into our minds to “have faith”.. but we’re taught it in words rather than in actions. We say “of course I believe that God can do _____” (you fill in the blank), but then we don’t act on that belief.. and really, I think we tend, often, not to believe as much as we say we do. 

I think the way we live shows that we’ve adopted this way of unbelief.. that we live by sight rather than by faith. Just the opposite of 2 Corinthians 5:7. 

Look at James 5. And look at Mark 11. 

I think we get so caught up in what we can physically see in the present moment that we don’t even know anymore just what God can do. Which is anything and everything. Literally. He is God. Remember?

He doesn’t give conditions in those verses. Like “if I feel like it, I’ll make the sick person well or move a mountain for you”… He says “it will be done” and “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up”.. and “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”…

We have to live by faith though. Not by sight. In this world of instant everything, that can be such a hard concept. We’ve grown up believing in what we can see.

God is so much bigger than that though. 

Isn’t it so much easier in our minds if we say “if”? Because, I mean, what if we say God is going to heal somebody or work out some other huge circumstance and then He doesn’t? It never hit me until these last couple of days how much that mindset is a fruit of not really fully believing. 

And by that, I don’t mean that I’m not His child or anything like that. But I mean the way I and I’m sure so many others have grown up. I’ve grown up saying “if” rather than “when”. Rather than believing that God will heal him. 

In just the same way that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and started to sink. 

Thank you much to one of my friends for that email the other night. It really set me thinking in a different way than I ever had before. More extensive, I think, on this subject.

Keep praying, please. God is so big enough. 😀 And I know He has something amazing coming. 😀 

Jon has an MRI scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and then his surgery is set for 7:30 Friday morning.

The story…
part one
part two
part three
part four
He is mighty to save..
whenever you call..
i know God had a purpose for this..
the Lord will fight for you..
faith is being certain..
keep on believing..
God is working..
His love never ends..