58 And he did not many mighty
works there because of their unbelief. –
Matthew 13:58
Poor Nazareth. The people
there took offense at their hometown prophet, Jesus, and as a result, Jesus
couldn’t do much in that town “because of their unbelief.” Their
lack of faith robbed them of Jesus’ “many mighty works.”
Wouldn’t that be an awful
thing to have said about your home, about your family, about you? “Jesus
couldn’t do much in or through you because you didn’t believe Him.” Do you ever
wonder, Lord, why don’t You do more in our church? Could it be
because of unbelief? Why do You cause good things to happen in my
friend’s life but not mine? Could it be because your friend believes
God more? You may be a candidate for James’s blunt wisdom: “ye have
not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye
ask amiss,” (James 4:2b–3a).
Faith is the key. God’s
promises are activated by faith. Faith is not passive—it’s active. Don’t say,
“I’ll just wait over here. Maybe God will work; maybe He won’t.” What are you
doing about it? Are you like the sick patient who needs to get better but
refuses to go to the doctor? That’s foolish. You have to do what you can. Or
like the single who longs for a spouse but never goes to where the singles are?
You can’t just sit in your basement and pray for someone to show up. Not a
great plan. Do your part. Or like the people who are filled with worry and want
to have hope but never read the Bible. They might carry it, respect it, and
defend it, but they’re not living in it. They’re not opening it like the Word
of life and drinking from it like someone thirsty in a desert.
The next time you gather
with other believers to cry out to God for rain, count how many people bring umbrellas for the trip home. Bringing an umbrella doesn’t force God to send rain,
but it does indicate how seriously you are expecting God to act!
Faith has to be active to be
real. Remember Naaman, the leprous general from 2 Kings 5? God told him to go
dip in the filthy Jordan River seven times. He was insulted. He hadn’t expected
that healing would involve potentially humiliating circumstances. He would have
paid richly for treatment, but he wasn’t eager to follow these instructions. At
first he angrily refused, but eventually, once he humbled himself and followed
God’s plan, he was healed. In faith, he did his part—and God did the rest.
Remember the widow in debt
from 2 Kings 4? She collected containers from her neighbors to hold all the oil
God gave her to pay back her creditors. In faith, she did what she could—and
God did the rest.
A warrior heading into
battle has to pick up his weapon. We must do what we can, what we’re commanded
to do as an expression of faith. Put some action behind what you believe, and
then watch God work. Only when we have done all we know to do can we wait by
faith for God to do what only He can do.
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