Faith in Difficulty

I believe in the healing power of God. I also believe in the truth that for those who believe in Jesus' name, we have what we have asked for. I also believe that a prayer of faith will raise up anyone who is sick. I also believe that at any point an intervention of Jesus in a person's life can bring about instantaneous healing. I believe in the compassion of Jesus and that God the Father feels exactly the same way about suffering that Jesus does because Jesus said He and the Father are one and that Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing.

We should always be challenged with the promises Jesus made and never give in to anything else but the fulfillment of His promises AND at the same time we must maintain trust and patient endurance until that moment of fulfillment comes!

It is my belief that the Bible teaches that the fulfillment of God's promises is not a question of IF but rather WHEN and HOW God delivers on His promises. Incidentally, Biblically speaking all of God's promises are already YES and AMEN for those who believe Him. We should always believe THIS is God's heart for us, and yet the head-scratcher is that even his faith-filled children often do suffer--many times the most!

For those who find themselves in the midst of suffering if you’re like me it can lead to doubting the goodness, the promises, and the power of God. Especially when what you have believed for has not yet materialized. Even more soberly there is the reality that some will not receive the fulfillment of God's promises until the resurrection at the end of the Church Age.

NO ONE receives the entire fulfillment of His promises until that day.

Gratefully there is is a promise that is 100% redeemable right here and now. Jesus said He will always be with us until the end of the age [Matthew 28:20], and that in this world we will experience trouble but that we can take heart because He's overcome the world. [John 16:33]

Please consider the following passage which does not devalue the power of faith in God's promises yet also affirms those who believe who have not yet received the fulfillment of the promise. If you like, read all of Hebrews 11. It's incredibly faith-building. Especially consider Hebrews 11:35-40 which is encouraging for those in the midst of suffering. 

By the way, Hebrews 11 is in fact one of my mother's most favorite passages in the Bible and it is also becoming one of mine. She believes for her healing every day, and I believe with her. It is imminently around the corner, but I don't know whether this will occur in this life or upon her resurrection.

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Scripture to Pray About

Hebrews 11:32-40

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

The Currency of Heaven

The religious leaders were continually trying to outwit and entrap Jesus.

One day they approached Jesus asking whether they should pay taxes to the Caesar.  

They were hoping to entrap him by admitting duplicitous allegiances where He would either get in trouble with the Romans for espousing anti-Roman sentiments, or get in trouble with the religious zealots who hated Rome.

Did you know Jesus was the king of gotchas? This time Jesus told a riddle.

"Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a roman coin...  Who's image is on the coin?"

Caesar

"Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belong's to God."

It was probably a head-scratcher at first. How does the image on the coin relate to God?  What may not be apparent is the fact that Jesus was covertly telling a riddle! So clever, so God!

The answer to the riddle is found in the unasked question that Jesus left for the honest seekers of truth to discover themselves.

If Caesar's image is engraved on a Roman coin, what is God's image engraved upon?

It's you and me! We are God's image bearers. We are His currency.

So the application of Jesus' message was, "Give to Caesar your money when required, but give yourselves to God."

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Scripture to Pray About

Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 

They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

Mark 12:13-17 (New International Version)

The Greatest Flex of All

In a world where we are inundated by flexes of various sorts I have struggled with being overly enamored by the accomplishments and power of people. It has been a continual fight for me to maintain a sober mindset and to remember to never sink to the level of worshiping the created rather than my creator! For my part I have often succumbed to envy and idolatry born out of insecure comparison forgetting that in the light of the power and glory of the Almighty the power of the created is inconsequential and not worth comparing!

Here is what I'm meditating on today:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. [Those who trust in themselves] are brought to their knees and fall, but we [who trust God] rise up and stand firm.

"Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they... know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

[taken from Psalm 20:6-7 and Jeremiah 9:23-24]