Big Answers

Big Answers

Read: Luke 17:11-19

“Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:19

“Praying without faith is like trying to cut with a blunt knife—much labor expended to little purpose.”

—James O. Fraser

IN WORD We know that all blessings come from God. He is the author of all that is good, and all we receive comes from His grace, not our merits. Knowing this, we might ask why Jesus says it is the faith of this leper that has made him well. Why doesn’t He say: “Rise and go; I have made you well”? Or “the Father has made you well”? Why does everything seem to depend on the faith of the recipient?

Perhaps faith is the currency of heaven as dollars are the currency of the American economy. Perhaps God’s own ground rules for this planet limit Him to intervening in the affairs of man only when asked with a right understanding of who He is. Perhaps faith is a mystery we will never comprehend this side of heaven. Regardless of the reason, it is solidly biblical. God responds to faith in Him, and He often withholds His blessing when faith is absent. When faith is gone, God seems distant. And when faith is great, God reveals Himself as greater still.

An awful lot depends on how we see God. If we see God as hard and begrudging, we will find Him to be so, both to His and our own disappointment. When we see Him as able, willing, loving, magnificent, and awesome, we will find Him to be so, to His and our own delight. This is not just a matter of psychology, in which the faithful and the faithless receive the same blessings but value them differently. It is a matter of a living relationship with an available God. When we open our mouths wide, He fills them (Psalm 81:10). When we don’t, He doesn’t.

IN DEED Does God seem absent? unavailable? slow to act and as overwhelmed by your problems as you are? There are times when He may test our faith in this way. But it is more likely that He is acting in exactly the way your faith expects Him to. You want big answers to your prayers? Pray big prayers, and know the size of the God you seek.