TOTHEUNTAMEDHEART.

Matthew 9:18-26

A dead little girl & a woman who has spent the last 12 years of her life bleeding constantly. & they both believed that a simple touch from Jesus is all they needed.

 

A hands on experience. A casual brush in passing. Nothing more.

 

& as the lady’s fingers brushed the hem of his robe, & as he took this little girl’s hand at her funeral procession days after she had died, something happened.

 

& he turns to the woman & says your faith has made you well.

 

Faith. Because you believed.

 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for & assurance about what we do not see.    (Hebrews 11:1)

 

& so if this belief can raise the dead & cure the incurable, what could our lives look like when faith is the main source of our actions?

 

Maybe the real problem today isn’t our lack of action of our religious hang-ups, but rather the power unbelief holds over our heads.

 

Really consider, if you will. Does unbelief rule in your heart or belief?

 

Because what I often forget is its one or the other. I either cling unswervingly to the belief, or I am powerless by unbelief.

 

The key is to break through the crowd.

 

The crowd, surrounding Jesus, telling you what he’s like & who he is & what he stands for. He died, love. For you. For me. The veil was torn. It was finished. He beckons you to push passed that curtain. Come closer. I want to know you, too.

 

The crowd, laughing in disbelief, because this psycho just barged into a funeral procession yelling that this child is not dead, when everyone has experienced the stillness of death for a matter of days now. Jesus says to listen, truly listen, & you will hear pass their disbelief. Step out, & the muddied waters will part.

 

So this father cleared his home of the crowd, driving every last one of them out, & Jesus simply takes this little girl’s hand, & she stands.

 

You can stand, too, you know. He’s holding your hand all the same & you have the same choice. To lay as if you’re still broken, or to stand because Jesus makes you whole.

 

& James writes,

But when he asks he must believe & not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown & tossed by the wind.

It sounds crazy. It feels self-absorbed trust that by believing God is more than able & his love for me is overflowing, that this God will provide.

 

It is craze. It looks like some screws could be rattling. Maybe they’ll even call you a narcissist.

 

But you know what God says? He says to not believe, that’s the crazy thing.

 

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded man, unstable in all he does.     (James 1:7-8)

 

The ones who can’t see past their own inability to recognize Gods more than capability, they’re the unstable ones.

 

Remember, babe. Remember the size of your God & remember everything he has done. Hold fast to him, & when the waves come threatening your grip on everything that you claim as your own, let him be the last one remaining. Stand, love. There’s greater things than breaking tides. There’s more than the words of the crowds.