Living Faith

In Matthew chapter 17 the Disciples, after having spent time on the mountain with Jesus and witnessing his physical transformation, and seeing Moses and Elijah appear AND a voice from heaven announce “This is my Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am and always have been delighted, LISTEN to Him”  they fell on their faces in fear, I mean, wouldn’t you? Honestly?

 But Jesus told them, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

The first thing they encounter when they leave that mountain top is a man who approaches them, and he pleads, no begs for their help. They don’t  know what to do. He directs his request to the Lord and says, “Lord, do pity and have mercy on my son for he has epilepsy (is moon struck) and he suffers terribly; for he frequently falls into the water and many times into the water. AND I brought him to your disciples and they were not able to cure him.”

We all know what happens next, Jesus rebukes the demon and the boy is cured and the disciples are left scratching their heads wondering why they couldn’t drive out the demon. Listen to what Jesus says to them:

“Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust] for truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is LIVING] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to yonder place and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

That’s what I gleaned from these last three chapters.

Jeremy speaks of finding 'the' woman for him and professing his love to her only to be told that she appreciated his profession but she couldn’t tell him those three words he longed to hear from her because it was a huge commitment she wasn’t ready to make. He speaks of how they went their separate ways for a time and of how she developed a cyst in her stomach and of how he went to visit her, and again when the cyst returned and was cancerous. Realizing that he still had feelings for her and realizing that he knew if she professed love for him he would marry her, he prayed to that end. She did profess love for him and he did propose but he was scared, they both were.

One of the things he wrote that resonated with me was a verse that is dear to me “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” The Amplified says it like this “THEN you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

But when is THEN?

It is AFTER the years of captivity are complete.

Go ahead, go read the whole chapter of Jeremiah 29. It is something I think many of us miss as we hunger and yearn to cram God into a box that fits on OUR shelf, to make sense of our circumstances. Or as Calvin so neatly put it: “Man’s nature so to speak is a perpetual factory of idols…Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God…to these evils a new wickedness joins itself, that man tries to express in his work the sort of god he has inwardly conceived.”

But LIVING faith puts to death those idols…and where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the WORD of God (Romans 10:17) which is sharper than any two edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). ;)

Jeremy speaks about he and his girlfriend (Melissa) who DID become engaged by the way and they gingerly began discussing their future and possibly even a future with children. Then the call came that the cancer had spread to her uterus. Jeremy says that he told the doctor that he was going to ask people around the world to pray and then asked that if when they performed the surgery and got in there if they found no cancer would they still have to remove Melissa’s uterus? The answer was no, but a skeptical no. The day of the surgery the answer came, no cancer.

God is STILL in the business of miracles. 

Jeremy married his bride, Melissa, and they shared a marvelous honeymoon on the island of Oahu. It was during this time he wrote the words and music for the song, “Walk By Faith”. He said the lyrics poured out of him, but began with questions: “Will I believe You when You say, Your hand will guide my every way?” and “Will I receive the words You say, every moment of every day?” God was preparing their hearts for what lie ahead. On the day of their wedding Jeremy said their hearts and minds were rooted in one of his “life verses” Acts 20:24 “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the Gospel of God’s Grace.”

Let me ask you, do you have a “life verse”?

In a way the entire Bible is our “life verse” but there are certain verses that are particular to our lives. For example, I grew up in an abusive home, I longed to have ‘normal’ parents and I longed for a history for my children. Psalm 119:71 has become a “life verse” for me. It says, “It is GOOD for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn YOUR statutes.” Or this one which has comforted me often from Psalm 27:10, “Although my father and mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up and adopt me as His own child.” Or this one from Philippians 3:10, “[For my determined purpose] is that I may know Him, [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope].”

Those of you who know me personally know just how personal those verses are to me, thus making them “life verses”. I encourage you, if you have not found any to call your own yet to dig deep in His Word and find YOUR life verse/s. Trust me, they are in there.

Jeremy writes that as a believer it as challenging to balance the divine and the human.

I’ve been a believer for over twenty years now, and I remember very early on a group of Christians, well-meaning ones, told me to pray, believing that God could heal my deafness. I totally believe he can, if He chooses to, if it will bring Him glory, if it is for my good. I was also told if I was not healed it was because I didn’t pray hard enough, or I didn’t have enough faith. Here is the rub…you have to use wisdom…I remember walking into the church’s bathroom after they prayed over my deafness yet AGAIN and looking in the mirror, disappointed that I couldn’t hear, but knowing in my heart that I still believed. I prayed and I said, Lord, YOU can heal me if you choose, I know this, I believe this, for some reason you are not, but I am not going to let this deafness affect my love for you.”

And it didn’t. You know what got me? A lust filled man…I let the knowledge that God KNEW what was coming derail me. I forgot that He also knows what comes AFTER, in my pain, in my confusion, in my sorrow, I forgot.  

Not any more though…

I look at my life now and I am so unbelievably blessed and happy…I was telling a friend the other day it is crazy how happy I am. If you know me personally, then you know that even when I am not ‘happy’ [which depends on your circumstances] I am joyful, [because true joy is found in Christ and is not a giddy, silly feeling based on circumstances]…my life is just settled.

My children are all grown and out of the house and doing amazingly well, for the first time in a long time I am not shouldering responsibilities that are not mine, and my husband and I are JUST. There is no other word for it. We are probably that couple you see out that make you want to throw up a little bit. I said all of that to say this: I am fully aware that this is just calm in the storm. This earth is not my home. I’ve been given a nice little respite and I am LOVING it. Don’t you love how God does that? To me it’s the epitome of I Corinthians 10:13, that landing place, a place of respite to re-group, to restore your soul, to prepare you for the battle ahead.

But don’t worry; He’s given you everything you need: STAND FAST, you were not meant to run…and while you’re standing there, hold up that shield of faith ;-)

XOXO