Seeing & Believing
John 4 v48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see
signs and wonders, you will by no means
believe.”
This verse is part of a tale about a man’s
son who is critically ill. And has travelled some distance, in order to try and
meet a guy who creates miracles. It’s a long shot, this is the last he has,
(The distance, he had walked, means nothing compared to his son’s wellbeing).
Making this journey today is nothing as in a car it would only take 15/20
minutes.
Bare with me if will, but, imagine driving
this distance to a Hospital, because you heard of a surgeon who can cure your
son. Only to be met such a rebuff. You would be staggered to, and probably you
would be angered even frustrated. There’s you who has unlimited riches, but
would give it all away to have your son made well-made well again. Because of
the station in life your wealth has brought, and am used to people saying ‘yes’
to. So how knocked back you would be to have been me by such a rebuff.
All be it was a boy who was sick and
knocking on death door. Illness has no respect for persons of wealth or
station.
Isaiah 55 v11 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you
people see signs and wonders, you will by no means
believe.”
Yet there is no doubt there is a little explanation, such is our Lords anxiety to purify and strengthen our faith in Him. The rich man’s faith was such that his faith was rested on the miraculous. In this very moment our Lord Jesus wanted show that His ‘word’ carried the same weight as if He was praying over his son back at home. Today we just call home on the mobile to find out there and then if his son had been cured, instead he had to walk/run home if faith that his son was well made so by Jesus. Wandering all the time is he or not well again, it must have been torture.
“If God
wanted me to believe, why does He not put a sign
in the
sky?”
Faith is a matter of the heart and not merely
of the mind. Real faith though is called into being not by an miraculous sign
by the word of our Lord Jesus. For if faith was to depend on the visible sign
in the sky, though there is great doubt it would accomplish it’s objective.
If the hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they
be persuaded that He rose from the dead.
How precious is Faith in the estimation of
our Lord and what pain He must have took to produce ~ purify & strengthen
it. What may one explanation of many of His strange dealings with the son of
man. His great longing is to lead us into the life of Faith. But what is Faith? Even though most exercise
faith in our lives, in various degrees, what we are conscience of or not.
Have Faith and believe
The
first time we see the word believe used is in . .
Genesis 15 v6 “. .And he believed in the Lord, and
He
accounted it to him for righteousness. .”
. .according to the literal
meaning of the time ‘Believe’ was to
mean ~ to stand one self, by leaning on someone or something ~ this being so we
lay our weak and changeable selves on Gods strength.
At this point I must bring 2 things to your attention. .
1.
True faith will have God as its Origin & Objective.
Remember ‘Abraham believed God’. In John 6 our Lord Jesus refers to it as ‘Work
of God’. Hinting that it is God who give the true inclination of mind in
complete trust.
2.
Our Faith in God is an act and NOT a mere sentiment. It is
not something that easily or simply comes to a man. He must believe in
something or someone other than himself.
. . I
would be a miss if I did not point out that there is a close relationship
between Faith & Will. Observe here, that, in the literal and strictest of
senses of the word Faith ~ is that we
must use effort. Whereas Will ~ is to
make it so. My summation comes but in 3 stages, which I hope will cement what
Seeing & Believing has been about.. ..
Stage
1 : Belief in Him our Lord
Stage
2 : The Saving belief
Stage
3 : Believing in the Lord
Stage 1 : Belief in Him our Lord
…To begin with this would lead us to an acceptance of His Revelation. All be it that it shows us, not, tells us how to be saved. Though many Christians can testify, that the book of Revelation paints a more vivid picture than Michael Angelo’s cysteine chapels ceiling. Of what will happen during the end times. Whilst it is possible for someone to have faith, yet still be lost? I say yes. True faith is something far far more than this. Therefore the 2nd stage it is far more imperative that this next stage be reached . . via . . simple belief in Him our Lord Christ Jesus our saviour
Stage 2 : The Saving belief . .
Hebrews 10 v39 “. . But we are not of those who
draw
back to perdition, but of those who believe to the
saving of the soul. .”
. .This is where the saving comes
in. When I go out and by a chair, I have faith without doubt, that when I come
in weary from the day it will hold my weight. Merely believing that the chair
will not give on me will give peace of mind, but, ‘believing ‘on’ it, that it
will bear my weight gives me peace of mind. This is just one of many instances
that we show in our modern living that an unconscious belief in . . the cars we
drive . . the coats we wear will keep us dry and warm . . or even this very pen
. . that they will do what it says on the tin, to coin a phrase here.
Stage 3 : Believing in the Lord . .
I may believe in the chair to help me become
rested and restored. Also as I believe in my car and the pen I write, the same
way. But still the car pen and I remain separated and distant, though not so with
Christ and my Soul. Believing . . on . . Him will lead to . . believing . .
into . . Him. Becoming one with Him, united to Him be ties of Love &
life. What a blessed union this has become.
Words
will forever fall short and are unable
to describe
the union fully
Lets say a short prayer I
have come across to describe my feeling…
“My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of
Calvary
Saviour divine”
