Where is our faith?

August 29, 2013 - Matthew 17:14-20

    ¹⁴ When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

   ¹⁷ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” ¹⁸ Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

   ¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

   ²⁰ He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

We know that nothing is impossible for God. But now Jesus said to his disciples that nothing will be impossible for you if they have faith even as small as a mustard seed. A father suffered quite a lot because his son was possessed by a demon that his son had seizures and he even harmed his body with fire or water. The disciples could not drive the demon out because of so little faith. The father finally came to a hopeless condition and only came to Jesus as his last resort to help his son. His request moved Jesus to heal his son. 

I also came to the most desperate condition because of my skin problem. Infections suddenly occurred around my mouth to the point that I couldn't sleep for the whole night. But I had prayed for the recovery of my skin disease and even shared my prayer request with my b/s in the prayer meeting. Nevertheless, the skin problem still worsened suddenly far beyond my expectation. I prayed to Jesus to have mercy on me and deliver me from this desperate condition. Nevertheless, a kind of inner peace still exists in my heart. Having taken strong antibiotics and a rest of the whole afternoon, infections are seemed to be under control though a lot of uncomfortable feeling of extreme dryness occurs around the mouth. I can sense a little bit of Job's painful feeling while his body was covered with sores. No miraculous healing occurred in my body; and my faith came to a severe trial as this skin problem came suddenly and became worsened without my control. Do I still have faith in God? I cannot boast of my strength and faith in God. I admit that I am only a normal Christian but I still choose to believe in Him who is still here with me, using His own way to heal and to stretch my faith though I prefer to hide in my comfort zone and use my own way to experience God.