Today I ventured out on the highways of Omaha all by myself and went shopping. I went to a really neat Christian bookstore called Parables. It was better than Family Christian, but not as big as Mardel's. Nevertheless, it was fun to look around a new store. I bought the 5th book in the AD Chronicles series I am reading and a book I have heard about for a long time The Sin Eater. But while I was walking around I saw a quote that caught my attention and has continued to dwell with me the rest of the day. "Faith is not believing that God can...but knowing that God will".
So I said to myself...that is my problem. I only hope that He will and know that He can. During my times of crisis when I have cried out to the Lord I remind Him of verses such as these:
Matthew 17:20
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Luke 17:6
"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."
Matthew 21:22
"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Mark 11:24
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
But even though I quote those verses, I remember all the times I have prayed and I did not get the outcome I prayed for. This is especially true when it comes to healings. I know that God's plan is always perfect and He is always good and when a prayer is not answered the way I had hoped I tell myself those very things. However, why are we told if we just believe, we will receive? I am left thinking it must be my fault that I really didn't believe enough. And others will say things like "well, it just wasn't God's plan, or God's ways are not our ways, or God is making a quilt and one day you will see all the stitching underneath, etc." But the bottom line is I believed I would receive and I didn't.
So I am stuck. What if I do believe that there is nothing God can't do, but also know the God who can do anything sometimes doesn't? Where does that leave my faith?
For me it leaves me saying the same thing the father said in Mark 9:24 '"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
2 comments:
I understand where you are coming from! Sometimes we pray and pray and we don't see the answers we want. And I like you know all the pat answers.
I think where we struggle, at least where I struggle, is in how God answers prayers. I don't believe we always see His answers here on this earth. I think sometimes answers won't come until heaven.
I had a friend several years ago who was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumor. She was healthy, started having headaches and died within 6 months. She had 2 children, the oldest in middle school. We prayed and prayed and believed that God would heal her. While she still perished from this earth, she WAS healed. And sometimes those answers are a little harder to understand. I guess we just have to remembered that this world in not our home and all of God's answers may not happen until we are home. Blessings!
Lynn,
This is what I was talking about last night Faith of healing is so hard and I do not know why?
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