Good Morning to All,
Matthew
17:20; “He said to them, “Because
of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain
of mustard
seed, you will say
to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will
be impossible for you.”
He was called “The Great Blondin”. He was an acrobatic daredevil who would
dazzle people with his stunts on a tightrope over Niagara Falls. One time he stopped in the middle of the rope,
sat down and cooked an omelet. He first crossed
Niagara Falls in 1859. Yet one of his
greatest stunts occurred a few years later.
People had come to look forward to his antics. He was a great showman who played to the
crowds. Once he asked if the people
thought he could go across the tightrope while pushing a wheelbarrow. Everyone there gave a rousing cheer of
support. He then asked if they thought
he could do it blind folded. Again, a
loud and rousing cheer went up. He then
paused and looked at the crowd and asked if they thought someone could ride in
the wheelbarrow. Once more, everyone
shouted their approval. He then asked, “Who
wants to go first?” There was dead
silence.
The people had faith but not very
much. They thought he could give someone
a ride in the wheelbarrow across the span of Niagara Falls just so long as it
wasn’t them. Faith is defined by
Christians as the desire to embrace God’s promise of forgiveness. It is that desire that God gives us to trust
in the promise of forgiveness and salvation.
This is the working and simple definition of faith that we use in
Confirmation class. Faith is the desire
to trust in God’s promise.
This desire must counter the desire to
trust our self. This sinful desire of
not trusting God is the devil’s ploy.
From the time of Eve until Christ’s return, the devil will always ask, “Did
God really say?” Faith turns away the
desire to believe the devil and to believe in God. Faith takes the promise that God makes to us
and holds onto it as tightly as we can.
We embrace it gladly and with the confidence of God’s promise of
forgiveness.
The beauty of faith is that it doesn’t take
much. We are never measured by how much
faith we have; it is only necessary to have faith. Yet growing our faith should be an earnest
desire and goal of the Christian. The
deeper the faith the tighter we can cling to God’s promise of salvation and
forgiveness. The stronger the faith we
possess, the greater we will be able to fight off the devil’s attacks and
temptations. A strong and growing faith
will aid us in the battle against the world and what it throws at us as
well. Faith, the desire to trust in God’s
promise, will help us prevail against the devil by God’s grace.
Father,
give us faith the size of a mustard seed.
Help us to move the mountains of doubt and despair that hinder us. Bring us closer to you that we may cling even
tighter to you. Help those who feel the
embrace as weak or not there. Guide them
by your Spirit. In Jesus’ precious name
we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.