- Consider it all joy: how do you see joy, where has it gone in all this?
- when you encounter: not if – when!
- various trials: all sorts of tests…life is full of it.
- testing of your faith: aha, so its a test of what YOU believe.
Then we took a look at Hebrew 11:6
“Without faith it is impossible to please God, first you must believe He exists and He is a re-warder of those who diligently seek Him”
- Without faith..impossible to please God: God has a very high value on faith, and seems to be looking for it in you.
- Must believe He exists: well in trials we tend to look at everything natural and forget the supernatural, and tend to put God at the “last resort” category … and even wonder where is He in all this chaos, confusion, pain etc?
- Reward and diligence in seeking is tied together: so yes, He does exist-and He is valuing faith above circumstances … and watching your response.
Conor, our grandson is in the bull pen with sickness, and we are not silent spectators waiting but now raucous participators, or partners commanding God’s perspective over nature. When God’s word-holders of Light, start marching down the corridors of lymphatic highways, pulsing arteries and veins, into spongy glands, through rubbery tubules, every red cell spins with joy, every leucoyte bulges in anticipation, every thrombocyte glows in expectation, and every foreign substance cringes, looking for dark corners to hide in – BUT to no avail…He sent His word to heal them … yes Conor, it is written.
- Bartemaeus,
- Woman issue of blood.
- Canaanite woman,
- Nobleman.
- Centurion,
- All they did was: to get to Jesus,
- Crowded into his heart-rending cry the story of their own helplessness, and their belief in the love, power, and compassion of Jesus of Nazareth.
- Even though He told them their faith made them whole, I am sure that what faith they had was given them by the Lord Himself.
- Can a man generate enough faith to find healing in walking a few feet on a dusty, Jericho road? The presence of the Nazarene was the source of faith in the days of old; and it is the presence of Jesus that is the source of our faith in these days of doubt and unbelief.
- He said “Without Me you can do nothing”. “All things are possible to them that believe”.