July 15, 2005
“…For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
--Matthew 17:20 (HCSB)
We live in a world where we get everything almost instantaneously. Just push a button and you have the whole world at your disposal. And it often seems that we want things that are even faster than what we have. Unfortunately, that tends to carry over into our spiritual lives as well.
We often treat God like an ATM machine. We insert our prayer card and expect immediate answers and blessings. We say, “God, if You don’t come through in this situation in my life in the next 15 minutes, I’m going to quit” or “I prayed once and nothing happened, so I’m not praying anymore.” We lower our expectations and therefore settle in to an arm’s length distance relationship with Him.
In the Bible, there was a mother whose daughter was demonized and oppressed by Satan. She took her daughter directly to Christ, even though she was a non-Jew and Canaanite, to beg Him to heal her child. Jesus simply put his hand out and set her aside for a moment because He was about to teach a powerful lesson about waiting and trusting.
While it looked like Jesus sent her away, He was only helping to build her faith. He said to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want” (Matthew 15:28, HCSB). And after that, her daughter was cured.
God doesn’t answer every prayer exactly when we want Him to or even the way we expect. And sometimes our prayers don’t get answered at all after all of our praying. But God has a purpose in every pain and in every situation in life. And ultimately, it’s for our good and His greater glory.
OUR FAITH PLEASES GOD WHEN WE REFUSE TO QUIT HOPING.