Devotional Thoughts: Faith in faith?

Am looking at Matthew 17:14-21.

Quick note about transparency of scholars who translate the Christian Scriptures into English. If you have a copy of the Bible at hand, check out verse 21. There should be some kind of footnote or something that tells you this verse is not found in all manuscripts.

The ancient Greek editions of the New Testament date back to about the 3rd and 5th century. I'm told there is remarkable agreement between various editions. When there are differences, they are noted in the footnotes. In this case, verse 21 doesn't seem to make too much difference to the incident described.

So what is the incident if you don't have a copy of Gospel of Matthew next to your computer?

A man approaches Jesus. He has a son with severe problems asked for help from the disciples and they failed to cure him. Jesus heals the son. The disciples afterward ask Jesus how come we couldn't cure him?

Jesus rebukes them: Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

I confess: this is a tough passage for me. I'm a scientist by training and by personality and that means: skeptic! So in my mind, I see a situation and I often feel it can't be changed. Well, this passage says it can be!

When we talk about faith we have to be talking about something more than faith in faith.

Instead, the minute the word faith comes up, you have to ask, faith in WHAT? Or in the case of God, faith in WHO?

James 2:19 says You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

So step one is to recognize there is an object of faith. And in this case, God. And the evil demons even recognize God! But recognition isn't enough.

So step two is to act on faith. Because I believe in God, my life should be different.

One of my favorite prayers in the Bible is Mark 9:24, "I do believe; help my unbelief." And this prayer is probably the prayer said by the father in this story!

I'm praying for some situations that seem hopeless.

The Pakistan earthquake hasn't gotten the media coverage but the need there is tremendous.

I received an email telling me about this agency that wants to send volunteers to build shelters to help keep Pakistani people alive through the winter. I'm praying that God will raise up the volunteers for this.