An old preacher named Fred Craddock used to tell a story about vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night they found a quiet little restaurant, where they looked forward to a private meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. [It wasn’t Colonel Sanders. That would be Kentucky] Craddock leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” He didn’t want anyone intruding on their privacy. But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. “Where you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” Craddock answered. “Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University,” Craddock replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife. Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, “Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! It seems like everybody has at least one.”
The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper,” he said. “I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was. “When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me. ‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’
The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, “Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them.” With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends. And as he walked away, Craddock – a native Tennessean himself – remembered from his studies of Tennessee history that on two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected to the office of governor men who had been born out of wedlock. One of them was a man named Ben Hooper. (Source: http://www.calvaryfullerton.org/Bstudy/49%20Eph/2005/49Eph01e.htm)
You are a child of God.
And once we realize that, we can live free. As Jesus taught here.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of Godabove all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Matthew 6:25-34 (NLT)
And then I want to pull in another passage.
At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
Matthew 17:15-20 (NLT)
But you know what he follows that story up with, a story that bad things are
going to happen.
After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
Matthew 17:21-23 (NLT)
Despite being a child of God, bad things happened. He’s warning them, but he
also just gave them the teaching of having a mustard seed faith that is linked
to God working in that teaching of Jesus.
Mustard seed faith. I want to propose one thing. That
size of faith is just the request. Our faith isn’t magical. Just necessary. But
it doesn’t have to be giant.
I can’t tell you why God doesn’t just always automatically heal. I think in the
world where we have two competing sides in Christianity – one that seems to
oppose healing and one that seems to have a God that just heals quickly and
automatically – we struggle to make sense of the struggle. Neither camp
provides a way of thinking to carry us through that time in between asking and
receiving. That time of the valley. I can’t tell you why you sometimes suffer
despite being a child of God.
But What if just praying is enough faith? What if that is the mustard seed? And then how do we deal with not receiving the healing?
In the end, we have to just continue pushing in. Our faith isn’t dependent upon
a healing. Maybe today is the day for the miracle you’ve bene seeking. And then
that is where we feel like we have to stop because talking about how today may
not be the day goes against the grain. It goes against the false name and claim
it way of thinking. But I want to tell you today that learning to cope and grow
with the struggle does not mean that you are lacking faith. You are a child of
God whether you get the healing or not.
You don’t need Superman faith. You don’t need a rambunctious, flamboyant,
exuberant faith. Just faith like a mustard seed. A faith that is willing to
just come to God and ask him what you desire. Just a faith that is enough that
leads you to God’s throne room in prayer.
Just enough faith to pray. Now is the time for simple prayers. Like a child can
pray.
The things you care about but feel stupid praying about. God wants to hear about them. God wants to have a vibrant conversation with you about those things. And that won't happen if you think they are just too stupid to bring up.
Because in the end, God cares about you and the things you care for. As we grow closer to him and allow the restoration of our broken places to happen, the things we care for will shift closer to the things that he cares for. But until then, we are who we are right now. So feel free to pray what is on your heart. Don't be fake with God. He won't think you're stupid. He loves you. He can handle your request. He can handle your disappointment. He can handle reality.
In the end, it’s God’s responsibility. If you have asked, you have exhibited
the mustard seed faith. And if he doesn’t heal, discouragement often sets in.
I remember the night our twins died. We came home from the hospital, with the
dead babies still inside Lindsay. And we anointed her with oil and prayed for
healing. I wanted God to give me a miracle story to tell the world. And I had
the faith that he could do it. Lindsay had more faith. The next morning, we
arrived at the hospital and asked them to do another ultrasound because we were
wanting to see the miracle that I would tell the whole world about. My dead
twins would be alive….They humored us with another ultrasound, but they were
still dead. And instead of a miracle story to tell the world, God gave me this
story. And as we wept throughout the delivery and the day with them in our room,
as we held our dead babies, we were left wondering why God didn’t give the
miracle we desired. The miracle we had faith for.
We are God’s children. Why did this happen to us?
And in some circles, people would tell me that I didn’t have enough faith. In other circles, they would tell me that it was unrealistic to expect the miracle. And yet, I’m somewhere in the uncomfortable mystery without an easy answer. God could heal but didn’t. I had faith but God didn’t respond with healing.
But then we come face to face with the story of Job. It’s Job ranting and
raving and arguing with friends for page after page about a tragedy that
happened to Job.
God answers all the bickering in the conversation between Job and his friends.
“Who is this that questions my wisdom
with such ignorant words?
Brace yourself like a man,
because I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
Who determined its dimensions
and stretched out the surveying line?
What supports its foundations,
and who laid its cornerstone
as the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
as it burst from the womb,
and as I clothed it with clouds
and wrapped it in thick darkness?
For I locked it behind barred gates,
limiting its shores.
I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
Here your proud waves must stop!’
“Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?
As the light approaches,
the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;
it is robed in brilliant colors.
The light disturbs the wicked
and stops the arm that is raised in violence.
Job 38:2-15 (NLT)
It goes on and we won’t read it all here, but God concludes his first rebuke
with this.
Then the LORD said to Job,
“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?
You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”
Then Job replied to the LORD,
“I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers?
I will cover my mouth with my hand.
I have said too much already.
I have nothing more to say.”
Job 40:1-5 (NLT)
So we enter into this age old struggle. A struggle shown in the ancient
book of Job. A struggle where we could cite so many stories in our days,
whether friends dying way too young or other tragedies and disease. We have
these promises from Jesus that God will take care of us. We know we are
children of God, yet we find ourselves at times in unresolved valleys. We have
faith. We have asked, yet it doesn’t seem that God has delivered. The healing,
the deliverance, the blessing that we want – still not realized.
I want that realized for all of us. It starts with a faith like a mustard seed.
A willingness to pray. To be honest with God about your feelings and ask. The
simple prayer that you feel foolish praying. Ask it.
And then it continues by not giving up. I picture Job just saying, “Screw it,
God. I’m out.” I’m the type that would do that three chapters in to his
forty-two chapter story. And then the blessing, the true realization, would
never come. Instead, Job wrestled with it. And the blessing eventually came.
But we need a belief system that can get us through those days where the healing
doesn’t come. And in many instances, like the instance with my twins, there is
no waiting for a deliverance or healing. The moment is gone.
But what do we do with all of this? Thankfully, Scripture gives us that too.
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans 5:1-5 (NLT)
So drop the empty platitudes. Don’t tell someone who has prayed in faith that
they don’t have enough faith for a healing. Don’t tell them to find the sin in
their life as if Jesus’ blood doesn’t cover all our sins. Jesus has already
brought victory. They have already exhibited the mustard seed faith in prayer.
Don’t tell someone to just deny their illness as if lying to themselves is a
way to manufacture faith. Laying claim to a miracle is not denial and lying. Lies
never produce faith. Faith must stand up to the reality we find ourselves in
and go to God to fix this broken place.
And then continue to push in toward God. You are his
child after all.
Suffering does produce hope. We must allow ourselves to grow closer to God in all
things. Grow in hope. Learn to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” in all
situations. Be the opposite of the world. Instead of despair, hope. And keep
pushing on. That opportunity, God will deliver. That healing, God will bring. God
doesn’t cause bad things, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t happen,
although we can be assured that he will use them for good. In all things grow
closer to your Father.
And live in the truth that God will provide and what he provides is sufficient.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Push into God. And he will give you the
strength you need. You are a child of God. No matter what happens.
