Week 41 Devotions

October 8 - - The apostle Paul wrote that Christians are people who “live by believing and not by seeing” (II Corinthians 5:7). Christians recognize that a life lived for God involves trusting in His promises even if we can’t comprehend how He will keep them, rather than walking in the comfort of things we can already see and understand. Thomas was only expressing what most of us would have naturally felt when his fellow disciples informed him they had already seen Jesus resurrected bodily from the dead. “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side” (John 20:25). Not until Jesus appeared to Thomas so that he could see, did Thomas then acknowledge Jesus as, “my Lord and my God!” (20:28). Jesus then pointed out the difference between walking by faith and walking by sight. “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway” (20:29). The fact is, “it is impossible to please God” without this kind of childlike faith and trust in Him (Hebrews 11:6). Those who do walk by faith in God have a confidence that He is able to do, “infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask of Him or hope that He could do” (Eph. 3:20; Proverbs 3:5&6). These bold individuals will be blessed for their faith, while those who walk by sight in only what they can understand and comprehend with their human mind, will miss out on the blessings of God. When two blind men followed Jesus, they dared to impose upon the Master with a request. “Son of David, have mercy on us” (Matthew 9:27). Jesus asked them whether they were men who walked by faith in God or by sight in what they could understand. “Do you really believe that I can make you see?” “Yes, Lord, we do.” So Jesus touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, it will happen” (9:28&29). Just like that, the two men were able to see. Contrast their attitude and the subsequent results, to that of the people living in Jesus’ home-town of Nazareth. When Jesus taught, he did so with a wisdom and an authority never observed before in the Jewish religious teachers (Matthew 7:28; Mark 1:22; Luke 4:32; John 7:46). So, when Jesus began teaching in the synagogue of his hometown, people were astonished. They asked, “where did Jesus get all his wisdom and the power to perform such miracles? He’s just a carpenter’s son. We know Mary, his mother. And we know his brothers and sisters. What makes him so great?” (Mark 6:1-4; Matthew 13:53-57). Many of these people had watched Jesus grow up. While they had to acknowledge that he was an exceptionally nice boy, it was still hard to comprehend someone coming from among them who knew and did so much. One of the saddest statements in the Bible appears in this portion of our text. “And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief” (Matt.13:58; Mk.6:5&6). What about you? Do you see Jesus doing many miracles around you? If not, maybe it has to do with the size of your faith, or the lack thereof. Jesus said that faith as tiny as a mustard seed could move mountains (Matthew 17:20). Have you moved any mountains lately? Why not? October 11 - - It is amazing to read about Jesus feeding over 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fishes, and still have over twelve basketfuls of food left over (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15). And as if the people had not seen enough, he fed over 4,000 on another occasion with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. And that time there were seven large baskets of leftovers (Matthew 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-10). When the people saw Jesus do what he did the first time, they readily exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” (John 6:14). The Gospels record miracle after miracle after miracle that Jesus performed. When Jesus healed a man who was both deaf and mute and in doing so, enabled him to hear and speak, he “told the crowd (who witnessed the miracle) not to tell anyone. But the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news, for they were completely amazed. Again and again they said, ‘Everything he does is wonderful.’” (Mark 7:36&37). On another occasion, “a vast crowd brought him the lame, the blind, crippled, mute, and many others with physical difficulties, and they laid them before Jesus. And he healed them all. The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking around, and those who had been blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel” (Matt.15:30&31). And yet, in spite of all these miracles, most of which were done right before their eyes, most of the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to believe in Jesus. They preferred arguing with Jesus to dialoguing with him. They would rather have believed that Jesus was sent from Satan than accept that he was sent from God (Matt.12:22-30; Mk.3:20-30). On more than one occasion the two groups asked Jesus for a sign to prove he was from God (Matt.16:1-4 & Mark.8:11-13; Matt. 12:38&39 & Mk.8:11&12; Luke 11:14-16). How true it is that we see what we are prepared to see and we hear what we are prepared to hear. How often do we find ourselves still asking Jesus for some kind of proof that he exists or that he cares when he has in fact proven himself over and over? Are we like the common people who praise Jesus because we see him at work in our lives on a daily basis? Or, are we like the Pharisees and Sadducees who refuse to see Jesus at work no matter what he has already done?