“I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred” (John 5:7, NIV). The man beside the pool of Bethesda was focused on what he lacked. He lacked a friend to help him. He lacked the strength to do it on his own. But while he was preoccupied with what he didn’t have, he totally missed what he did have-he had Jesus! Standing right there!
What’s your excuse for continuing to lie down on your responsibilities? What’s your excuse for remaining a spiritual child when you should be mature in your faith? What’s your excuse for sleeping when you should be kneeling in prayer? What’s your excuse?
Is it lack of faith? Lack of willpower? Lack of knowledge? Lack of discipline? Lack of energy? There is no excuse you or I can come up with that is valid because we have Jesus!
Following the resurrection of Jesus Christ but before His ascension, He spent forty days and nights, coming and going among His disciples. At one point, two of His disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus when suddenly Jesus appeared, walking with them. Then, just as suddenly, when they broke bread together, He disappeared. At another time that same day, His disciples were gathered together in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with the windows barred and the doors locked. Suddenly Jesus was in their midst; then just as suddenly He disappeared. Jesus appeared again suddenly to His disciples on the shore of Galilee after they had been out all night fishing.
During the forty days when Jesus suddenly appeared to His disciples then just as suddenly disappeared, could it be He was teaching His disciples to live by faith? Whether or not they could see Him, He seemed to be teaching them to be confident He was actively present and involved in their lives.
Even though you cannot see Him, you can know He is near because He says He is!
Within a period of eighteen months, I went through a cluster of storms that left me emotionally gasping for breath. From Hurricane Fran, which downed 102 trees in our yard, to the fire that consumed my husband’s dental office, to my son, Jonathan’s, cancer and surgery, to my parents’ increasingly fragile health that included multiple hospitalizations, to a home remodeling project that involved a contractor who took our money but refused to do the work, I reeled from one emergency or crisis to another.
Looking back over that eighteen-month period, my thoughtful, confident conclusion is that God allowed the storms of suffering to increase and intensify in my life because He wanted me to soar higher in my relationship with Him-to fall deeper in love with Him.
Faith that triumphantly soars is possible only when the winds of life are contrary to personal comfort. That kind of faith is God’s ultimate purpose in allowing us to encounter storms of suffering. Trust Him!
When I was growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, every Sunday afternoon, weather permitting, my parents, my siblings, and I would go hiking. Inevitably, our climbs would take us to the ridge where the trees were so enormous we could all hold hands and still not be able to encircle the trunks. When I asked my mother why the trees were so much larger on the ridge than anywhere else, she replied that it was because the winds were the strongest and the storms were the fiercest on the ridge. With nothing to shelter the trees from the full brunt of nature’s wrath, they either broke and fell, or they became incredibly strong and resilient.
God plants you and me in our faith as tender saplings then grows us up into “trees of righteousness,” using the elements of adversity to make us strong. And He leads us to endure, not just somehow, but triumphantly as we choose to praise Him, regardless of the storms swirling within us or the winds howling outside of us.
Having commanded the stone to be rolled away from the place where Lazarus was buried, Jesus challenged Martha not only to obedience but to expectant faith: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). In essence, He was saying, “It’s time to place all of your small, mustard seed-sized faith in Me and My promise to you.”
Martha had said she had faith. She intellectually believed what Jesus had said. But Martha needed to make the transition from faith to trust. Because while belief is the consent of the mind and faith is a choice of the will, trust is a commitment of the heart.
The time had come for Martha to put her faith into action by surrendering all of her hopeful expectations and heartfelt longings and practical common sense and simply trust Him. And the time has come for you to simply trust Him. Trust HIM!
