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Observation

A woman who has been sick for most of her life pushes daringly through the crowd just to touch the edge of Jesus’ clothes, believing this would be enough to heal her, and it was. Does this mean that “daring belief…faith,” is what is required for Jesus to bring healing? Was it the touch or the faith that instigated the touch? Is it that when I bring an action to my faith then miracles happen?
We always want to find the formula and create the law of action. We want an A+B=C Jesus. Because this gives us control, and control makes me feel secure. We want to control Jesus’ miracles, we want the miracle worker to work for us. Tell me what I must do in order for Jesus to do what I want to be done! Give me the A, B, and C.
In God’s economy, in his way, there are no laws that he must submit to, there are no A, B, or C’s that control him. There are principles, the principle that bold faith can see miracles happen is a true principle. It is also true that many more miracles would happen if people were to exercise bold faith. But it is equally true that in the presence of bold faith miracles do not happen the way we want them to. We want a God we can control when what we have is a God who is mysterious in his workings. We want a God who behaves according to the rules when we have a God who is beyond our comprehension, let alone rule-following. We want to control when the reality is we don’t have the capacity to even slightly understand all the dynamics in play, let alone control them. Modern man wants a small God who serves them at their beck and call, but that’s not a God we would worship, that’s a God we want to use. Many of us want to be God and just have a miracle worker lackey who follows our commands.
So many bold faith-exercised hearts have been broken because God won’t play according to their perceived rules. They have risked and prayed, and pushed through the crowd for their miracle and not received what the woman received. They look for answers as mysteries and unknowing is not enough. They either cripple themselves with shame that they were not enough, not enough faith, boldness, prayer, whatever. Or they cripple their picture of God that he is not enough for them, that he is unkind, unloving, and unfair. I get it, we all get it. If we are honest we all want a God who does as we say. But this would require him to cease being God. The embrace of mystery is possibly the biggest act of bold faith one can make. “I came forward boldly, I touched his clothes, and I went away without my miracle, but he is still my God.” This is the boldest faith expression there is. You are worthy of my worship even when you won’t behave as the God I want. This is the posture of one who walks by faith in God.

Application

I would want to live as a man of bold faith regardless of the outcome. I never want to be passive when faced with the need for a miracle. I don’t want to be motionless through fear of not getting my answer, and I equally don’t want to be so demanding that my picture of God stands at the shaping mercy of that answer. I want to take the principle of bold faith but live in the mystery of not understanding. I want God to be more than my whipping boy, I want a God who I can trust regardless of my stuff. God give me faith to live like this.

Response

Thank you that you are not an A, B, C God, even though I sometimes want you to be. Thank you that you are engaged in the personal life of individuals in that miracles can and do happen, but thank you that I am not in control of their flow. Thank you for the invitation and capacity for bold faith, I love being engaged but not in control. Thank you for being above my understanding I will trust you in all things for you see, know and understand much further than I can ever hope.

Meditation

Meditate – because you dared to believe, your faith has healed you.
Consider:
Does your picture of God shaped by his performance in your circumstances, his response to your demands, or to the picture of Jesus in scripture?
Do you stand in bold faith?