23 Jesus said to him, “‘If you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”
24 At that the boy’s father cried out, “I have faith; help my lack of faith!”
Reflection
This father, that cried out in desperation to Jesus to heal his child, created a prayer that I think we all should pray, “I have faith, help my lack of faith!” This is not only a confession of faith, it’s a request to be given more faith than we think we can handle. This father has faith, but not quite enough to believe Jesus can cure his son because all attempts up to this point have failed. Therefore, his rational mind believes healing his son can’t be achieved, based on all the evidence he’s seen up to this point. But Jesus is asking this father to go beyond what is possible and to believe in the
seeming impossible, because “all things are possible for the one who has faith.” Jesus has unshakable faith that God will heal this child, and the child is healed, because “all things are possible for the one who has faith.”
When we hear this statement, we instantly rationalize that the age of the possible is over. We may believe that ‘miracles’ only happened in the New Testament, and that ‘miracles’ don’t happen now. We stop believing in what’s possible with God, and our faith stops growing.
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
It’s one of the paradoxes of faith that Jesus asks us to have faith in what we think is impossible, things like, Jesus’ resurrection, or eternal life or the ability to love our enemies. Faith isn’t so much a thing that we carry around in our pocket, as faith is action. Faith is who we are, what we believe and how we live. It’s given to us by God’s love and grace. Jesus showed us what it was like to live a life of faith in God. Faith, guided by the Spirit, is believing in all the promises of God.
Faith that isn’t challenged or exercised or stretched, just doesn’t increase. Jesus has promised to be with us always. So maybe our prayer should be to ask God to increase our faith. If we aren’t actively praying to God to increase our faith, then we’re missing out on living our faith. And life on this planet will have plenty of opportunities for us to have our faith challenged and increased. So instead of keeping our faith in a safe place, we can spend time in prayer saying to God, “We believe, God, increase our faith.” Then stand back and watch what happens.
Prayer: Holy and Loving God, we believe, increase our faith. Amen.
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