The One About Faith

(From Evelyn):

I find myself today just trying to rest and unwind from the busyness of last week. It was a lot of extra work on top of all the things I need to take care of. Between coordinating Daniel’s care, preparing his blended meals in the gap between shipments, picking up and delivering his packaged blends while taking the kids for a visit, plus more, it was a lot to do.

I’ve been wanting to write this blog post for what seems like a long time. I hope you’ll enter into what God has been teaching me.

What I’ve Been Reading and Listening To

Over the past several days, God has been teaching me more about faith and prayer. I’ve been learning about faith, miracles, and how they fit into the Christian worldview more precisely from Eric Metaxas’ book, Miracles. In the first third of his book, Metaxas writes about the more academic arguments for miracles, past and present. The last two thirds are actual miracle stories from either the author’s personal experience or from friends whom he trusts and verified details. He said he could have included a lot more stories if he had the space and chose stories from friends of friends.

Also, while I was preparing Daniel’s meds and meals especially, I spent a lot of time listening to and reflecting on a particular sermon from John MacArthur, “The Power of Faith” based on Matthew 17:14-21. This is the passage in the Amplified version:

¹⁴ And when they approached the multitude, a man came up to Him, kneeling before Him and saying, ¹⁵ Lord, do pity and have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy (is ^[a]moonstruck) and he suffers terribly; for frequently he falls into the fire and many times into the water. ¹⁶ And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to cure him.

¹⁷ And Jesus answered, O you unbelieving (^[b]warped, wayward, rebellious) and ^[c]thoroughly perverse generation! How long am I to remain with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me. ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked privately, Why could we not drive it out? ²⁰ He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of ^[d]firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [^[e]that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ^21 [f]But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.[i]

What I’ve Been Learning

Miracles

Reading about the modern day, vetted stories of how God is doing the miraculous in the lives of His people was so very encouraging. You can’t just do a Google search on miracle stories and expect to read the truth. That is why I was excited to learn that Eric Metaxas wrote this book – because I knew he is very careful with the facts (he wrote two very popular biographies on William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer). He didn’t want to write this book at first, but the non-Christian editor who wanted the book said he’d get someone else to write it if he didn’t because the editor was adamant the time was ripe for this kind of book. At that point, Metaxas said he had to write it because whoever else might write about miracles might take a very New Age approach to it. He wanted to take a very biblical approach to the subject matter, but in a way that isn’t just written to Christians. Anyone can interact with his book.

One of my favorite concepts in Metaxas’ book comes at the beginning of his section on healing miracles:

The Bible says clearly that God wants us to ask him for help when we need it, and it is clear that asking for healing when we are sick is part of that. Whether he heals us is another story, but if we don’t ask for it, we are preempting the very possibility that it might happen. So we should ask.

I really appreciated his emphasis on the extent of our role in miracles – having faith and asking God – but also knowing that a miracle is ultimately up to God. I also liked how Metaxas didn’t write the stories in isolation, but gave the context and how God then used the individuals by giving the reader a glimpse of the purpose of the miracle.

Faith

As an aside, we need to differentiate between biblical faith and counterfeits. It’s not the type of “name it and claim it” bad theology where one thinks he or she has the power of creation in one’s very words. Only God has that power. Acknowledging and being reminded of a promise of God by talking about it is one thing (and a very good thing to do), but “claiming” it by speaking certain words to somehow mystically make it real is just not supported in the Bible.

Our prayers are only effective because of the God to Whom we pray, not because of the actual words we utter. Our God is not some impersonal force in the universe that we must cajole and manipulate with our words and thoughts to get what we want. He is a magnificent, personal Being Who is both holy and loving, and longs to be in relationship with us; but on His terms, frankly, because He’s God. Please be careful not to allow ancient paganism and New Age, The Secret type practices into your doctrine.

The Mustard Seed

In the passage on which John MacArthur preached (and its parallel passages in Mark and Luke), nine of the disciples aren’t able to cast a demon out of an epileptic boy. Jesus returns from the Mount of Transfiguration with the other three disciples and encounters a crowd of people – the disciples, the boy’s father, sneering scribes, and onlookers. Jesus instantly heals the boy, but not without substantial frustration at His disciples’ little faith.

In private, the disciples are bewildered why they couldn’t heal the boy when they had been given the power to heal and cast out demons earlier. This time it didn’t work, and they probably tried several times! Jesus responds by saying that their faith was too little – or short-lived. They gave up too soon. In John MacArthur’s words:

Little faith is the kind of faith that believes in God when you have something in your hand. Got it? Oh yes, I believe God. Oh yes, the Lord provides. Here it is and I'm hanging on to it. That's little faith. But little faith can't believe God when it doesn't have in hand its resource, that's little faith. Great faith says I believe God without anything in my hand. I believe God in the middle of the storm. I believe God though [the] wind is howling.

In other words, Jesus gave them a harder test, a miracle that required from them persistent prayer. The first miracles that they were empowered to do came instantly, but that takes very little faith. Jesus wanted to start “weaning” them off of Him in preparation for His physical absence. MacArthur says:

What the disciples should have done when they didn't heal the man the first, second or third time, was to keep on praying and keep on trusting and keep on believing God till their persistent prayer broke through and reached its point where God wanted them to learn, and then God would have responded. It isn't that they had to batter down heaven to get His attention, it is that God knew exactly what He was going to do but He withheld it in order that they might continue to stretch their faith.

Even though we as Christians today don’t have the apostolic gift of healing that the Apostles had (which was to verify their words and witness as genuinely coming from God), Jesus’ principle of faith like a mustard seed is incredibly applicable to us today. But the problem is so many people misinterpret the point of the mustard seed. The average faith healer today will tell you you just need to have “enough faith,” in some subjective, baseless quantity of feeling.

That is not what Jesus is talking about. Earlier in Matthew 13:31, Jesus talks about how even though a mustard seed is the smallest of seeds (that they had in that region), it grows to be a plant large enough for birds to rest in its branches. Did you catch the point? It’s not the size that the seed starts from, but the fact that it grows! Jesus is telling us that faith is only real and effective if it grows.

But how does our faith grow? Well, that’s where trials and suffering come in, and not just trials that have an immediate resolution. MacArthur says,

I believe there are many things that God desires for you to experience in your life that God desires to accomplish in your life that are available to you through the exercise of His divine power. But that power will never be tapped until you have the faith that starts small. And when it meets with resistance and when you don't see it happen, the faith doesn't die small, it gets larger and larger and larger. And you continue persistently in prayer… He wants you to persist in prayer because that's the extension of your faith. You see, if you just said, "God, I want this..." (snap) you've got it...you'd never learn [to strengthen] your faith. You'd never be ready for the trial, would you? And so the Lord asks us to persist and persist.

A Few Final Notes on Matthew

Regarding the “mountain” that Jesus is referring to, it is clear from the context Jesus was speaking figuratively as teachers in His day often did when speaking of moving mountains. He is talking about a seemingly insurmountable problem.

And as far as “nothing is impossible,” in the context of Matthew the disciples were promised to be able to heal, and so it would be possible for them. MacArthur says, “It's only possible, first of all, if it's within the framework of God's will and God's promise.” For us, the principle still rings true. Promises that God has made to His Church in this age will not be impossible if we persist in prayer.

The sticking point is that so many Christians (my past self included) take promises from the Bible that were made to other people in other times that weren’t meant to apply to them and say that they “claim” that promise. But that’s another topic for another day. Watch this video and read this article for a fuller explanation. There are PLENTY of promises God has made to us, His Church, without us having to steal promises from others and end up disappointed and alienated.

How Enduring is Our Faith Really?

Wow, so that’s a lot of theological ground to cover. You may be wondering, ‘So what? Why did you make me read all of that?’ Well, there are a few main lessons I want to relate to what Daniel and I are going through, and how you participate in this with us.

Based on the undeniable fact that God still does miracles today – He still intervenes and injects His creative and restorative power into our broken world – we can expect to see God do miracles in the future. So, why is it so hard to pray for them and actually believe that God could do something miraculous?

I think it’s clear from the passage in Matthew that many times we allow our faith to be stopped too soon. Remember, it’s not that we need to somehow manufacture some subjective feeling of “belief” or “positive thinking” or “good energy” and just try to keep going. That’s not the faith of the Bible. We need to remember Who it is we put our faith in, and we only know that from studying the wonderful gift of God’s Word to us. The faith Jesus is calling us to have will start small, but as long as it’s based on the true Source of faith, it can grow and get stronger. Real faith starts when human resources stop.

God has been showing me how He has been growing my own faith during the past eight months. It is only through this extreme trial that God could have instilled in my soul and mind the degree of understanding of what true faith in Him looks like. If God had healed Daniel right away, I wouldn’t have the strength of faith I do now. To Him be the glory.

What about you? Did your faith quit when you prayed earnestly for Daniel that first week after he was diagnosed and he wasn’t healed? The first month? Six months? Does time have the power to kill your faith in God’s ability to heal?

What about the severity of Daniel’s suffering? Has that killed your faith? Is your faith still intact knowing that his weight has further dwindled down to 103 lbs.? That he has an open lesion the size of an apple on the side of his face and several smaller ones? That the tumor is growing out of his mouth and he lost another half a tooth this week? That it’s a near constant job for him sucking out mucus from his nose, mouth, and trache, plus managing the necrosis from his lesions?

I don’t want your prayers and your faith to be ignorant of what Daniel goes through. It’s horrible and heartbreaking. My stomach is in knots even having to write all of that. Do you still have faith that God can and may heal all of that? Do you really?

We do.

Through many hours spent in fervent prayer and reading the Bible, God has strengthened our faith. By His mercy, we refuse to let any symptom, suffering, crisis, or even seeming delay replace our faith with despair and fear. Has our faith wavered? You bet! And it’s in those moments that we have to immerse ourselves in more Scripture and spend more time crying out to God in agony and desperation. We take comfort that God can handle our emotion; after all, He created us that way. We need to intentionally remind ourselves of the truth we know and the character of the God with which we have entrusted our earthly lives and eternity. Plus, the blessing of Daniel’s type of cancer is that it is incredibly visible – as in, it will be undeniable that God healed him should He choose to.

Why “Stringy?”

A long time friend of Daniel from Timberline Ranch recently shared her struggle with the question, “Why Stringy?” – Daniel’s camp name (no, he didn’t pick it, but now after 22 years it’s just a part of him). Why does Stringy have to go through all of this suffering when he’s been so faithful in serving God?

The answer I gave her surprised her and she asked me to share this on the blog. I said that, yes, I have asked that question, but I haven’t dwelt on it. The reason is because God in His mercy has shown me the obvious answer.

It had to be Stringy. In all of the ways God is moving (and God has only given us a glimpse of that, which is still amazing), these things could have only occurred because of the connections Daniel has and those people’s connections, because of the legacy of ministry God has given Daniel, because of how God has been preparing Daniel for this season. And it is only because of the utter severity of Daniel’s suffering and that of our family that so many are taking notice.

God is actively mobilizing His Church to do what He designed it to do, as well as giving unbelievers a picture of Who He is because of what we are going through. Daniel wouldn’t have the ministry in the hospital he has if he wasn’t sick.

Does that make it easy? Oh…no. Every single day is a battle and struggle to take each next step, whatever the challenge may be for him and I. But because of our faith in the one, true God, we know our struggle is not in vain. We trust God for His sustaining mercy, remain diligent in doing the tasks and fulfilling the responsibilities He has given us, and then we trust Him for the results.

In the sermon at our church on Sunday, the guest speaker, Jason Ballard, asked the question why we don’t pray more for miracles. He wondered if it was because people think it would make God look bad if nothing happened. I like how he assured us that God doesn’t need help in the PR (Public Relations) department. He can take care of Himself.

A Question for You

There are hundreds of people reading this blog, most we know but many, many we do not. Within that number, there is bound to be a wide variety of beliefs, worldviews, and ranges of faith – from having none to little to enduring.

What type of blog reader are you? Maybe you started out faithful and hopeful back in April before things got really bad. But the degree of suffering and length of time has destroyed your faith. Now you’re just reading out of a morbid curiosity, to see how things (what you think) will inevitably end; just rubber-necking in the blogosphere.

Or perhaps you’re one of the many who wants to have stronger faith but seems to just be beaten down by the harsh reality and suffering. You’re struggling to truly believe God can do what He says He can do. Take heart, there is an antidote to little faith. Persist in prayer. Read what God has to say about Himself.

And we know there are many reading our blog who join with us in tenacious faith, and continue to pray for Daniel to be fully healed and restored. You have learned through your own life’s struggles how God is so faithful and can do all and more than we ask or even imagine. We find it so incredibly encouraging when people respond with such genuine, enduring faith that Daniel could and even will be healed. 

Final Thoughts

First, I want to thank you for making it this far. I knew this post would turn into quite a long one, and I hope and pray it has been a blessing to you. I have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to express my thoughts on what He has been teaching me, and I hope that I have not gotten in the way of what God may want to teach you. If there are things you would like to dialogue further about, rather than leaving a comment and risk the online tendency of being misunderstood, I invite you to contact me and let’s arrange an afternoon where we can sit and chat over tea.

Second, we have been and continue to be so very blessed by God’s people – even strangers – who have been faithful to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in their lives to give of their time, talents, and treasures. Thank you for continuing to support us both practically and in prayer as we wait expectantly for God’s miracle. To Him be all the glory! His will be done.

---

[i] The ending of the passage, “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting,” is in italics because it’s not original to Matthew, but comes from Mark, and the “fasting” part isn’t in the earliest manuscripts, so it should read, “But this kind does not go out except by prayer.”