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Scripture for the day: Matthew 18:18-20 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Thought for the day: Jesus was walking one day with His disciples and, as He so often did, He taught them as they went along. There was much they needed to know for He was in the process of changing their entire thought patterns from the Old Testament with its emphasis on the law, the rules and the judgmental “we’re better than you because we’re God’s chosen people” attitudes to those of the New Testament emphasis on grace and an intimate relationship with the Father through the Son. At one point in their journey, He told them of the need to seek reconciliation with those who may have wronged us, a radical departure from the O.T. idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Then He went on to tell them of the place faith needed to have in their lives and the power that faith can have (don’t misunderstand; faith is an integral part of the Old Testament as well – consider David and Goliath, Gideon and all the prophets sent by God to speak His word to a lost generation).
So, let’s consider this thing called faith for a few moments. What does it truly mean to have faith that moves mountains? In Luke’s account, the 11th chapter, there is a story of a man who is suddenly visited by a long-lost friend. This friend arrives very late at night and hasn’t had anything to eat all day. The man is in bed but gets up to welcome his friend anyway. Now, in those days (and hopefully today as well) a person would have been considered almost unforgivably rude not to wash the dust from the weary traveler’s feet (a task reserved for the lowest of the servants) and put some food and drink on the table, no matter the time of day or night the visitor may have arrived. Unfortunately, this man had no food to offer so, being in great need, he went to his neighbor, already in bed for the night, to ask for a few loaves of bread to share. Most of us have heard the story so I won’t go into great detail; suffice it to say he had to knock on the door for some time before the man in the upstairs bedroom with his family got tired of hearing it and gave him the bread just to get his crazy neighbor to go away and let him get some sleep.
More important for you and me is the question of why Jesus might have told this parable. Was he saying that, if we truly have a desperate need, we should keep asking God for it until He gets sick of hearing us pounding on His door? Did Jesus mean to imply that the Father, though reluctant to be bothered with our petty needs would, if pestered long enough, finally give in? In light of His other teachings, I find that interpretation a bit difficult to accept. More likely, and certainly more encouraging, is the idea that, if someone who doesn’t even like you and wants to do almost anything rather than help you out will give you the bread you need if you keep at him long enough, how much more likely is a loving, compassionate, merciful God to be in meeting those desperate needs you bring to Him? “And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” That’s a great thought isn’t it? But listen to the next sentence: “For everyone who asks receives, and he that seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door is opened.”
Let me put this another way, as an old-time writer said, “And I say to you, that if you will ask in the same desperate, persistent, never-ceasing manner that this man asked for bread, that you will receive. If you will seek as this man did, at midnight, with refusal ringing in your ears, but with a desperate faith that will not cease until the matter asked for is possessed, you too will find. If you will knock at the door of Almighty God, and knock, and knock, and knock, never ceasing, never letting up, never quitting, never despairing, it shall be opened to you!”
How desperate are we for the salvation of our loved ones? How willing are we to hold on to the promises of God until we see them come true? Why is the power of God to radically change lives so seldom seen today? Lack of faith! Lack of perseverance in faith.
How desperately do you want your prayers for others to be answered? Hang on; the answer is on the way!
Now go take on your world. - Bill