One verse held me captive for about 30 minutes this morning. I just couldn’t move past it. It struck something so core I had to dig deeper, act, and ponder more. My heart laments at this one verse because people missed out. My heart laments for people today because they’re missing out too because of one major problem: unbelief.
In Matthew 13:53-58 Jesus heads back to His hometown to teach and do miracles. The people were amazed at His wisdom and knowledge, but then the cynical questions begin. Basically, they asked, “Who does he think he is? God?”
Can’t you just hear their sarcasm?
Jesus knew it would be hard to convince his hometown crew of who He was because they could only see Him as the carpenter’s son. He’s little Jesus, Mary’s son. His brothers and sister were still there, probably raising families of their own, cooking, cleaning, building, you know living life, doing that thing we adults do.
Then along comes Jesus who had left a while back. He enters into the church and starts teaching like He’s a pastor now.
Nope! They weren’t having it. There was no way they were going to bring their sick to him. He’s just Jesus. Even though they were amazed at His wisdom. Even though they probably had heard of His miracles from other towns, they didn’t believe in His abilities.
Oh wow, homies are the hardest crowd to convince.
Unfortunately, they missed out. Because they couldn’t see past the fact they knew Him growing up, they couldn’t accept He was capable of being more than just a carpenter’s son. They were fixated on Jesus’ humble beginnings.
And because they didn’t believe, they didn’t bring the sick or their needs to Him. Jesus didn’t do very many miracles in His hometown, not because He couldn’t or wouldn’t, but because the people didn’t believe He could heal or help them.
Oh the sadness of this breaks my heart.
How many times does our unbelief prevent us from bringing our sick ones to Jesus?
Today, I stopped in the middle of my digging deep. I knelt and brought my sick ones to Jesus. I believe Jesus does miracles! I believe!!!
Let’s not be like Jesus’ hometown folk. Let’s not let our lack of faith hamper Jesus’ power. When we don’t bring our needs to Him, He doesn’t do miracles.
Now, let me just say, Jesus still gets to decide what, when, how, and if He will, but one thing I believe. He won’t if we won’t.
I don’t know everything about Jesus or His ways and I’m certainly not done pondering this profound verse. One thing I am sure of. I believe!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss out on Jesus’ miracles in my life and in the lives of those I love. I will daily bring my own needs and those of others to Jesus. I want to see miracles happen by Jesus today. I don’t want to just read about them in the Bible. I want to see them today! I hope you will join me and believe in Jesus’ abilities.
Scripture:
Matthew 13:58 – And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Leave a Reply