the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
“According to your faith be it unto you.”
When Jesus asked two blind men if they believed that He was able to give them sight, they replied that they did. As He touched their eyes, He said, “According to your faith be it unto you,” and their eyes were opened.
It would be easy to conclude from this that if we just have enough faith, we can get anything we want, whether wealth, healing, or whatever. But that is not the case. Faith must be based upon some word of the Lord, some promise of God, some command of Scripture. Otherwise it is nothing more than wishful credulity.
What we learn from our text is that the extent to which we appropriate the promises of God depends on the measure of our faith. After promising King Joash that he would have victory over the Syrians, Elisha told him to smite the ground with his arrows. Joash smote three times, then stopped. Elisha angrily announced that the king would have only three victories over Syria whereas he could have had five or six. The measure of his victory depended on his faith.
It is that way in the life of discipleship. We are called to walk by faith, to forsake all. We are forbidden to lay up treasures on earth. How far do we dare to go in obeying these commands? Should we do away with life insurance, health insurance, savings accounts, stocks and bonds? The answer is, “According to your faith be it unto you.” If you have faith to say, “I will work hard for my current needs and the needs of my family, put everything above that in the work of the Lord, and trust God for the future,” then you can be absolutely certain that the Lord will take care of your future. He has said that He would and His word cannot fail. If, on the other hand, we feel we should exercise “human prudence” by providing for a rainy day, God will still love us and will still use us according to the measure of our faith.
The life of faith is like the waters that flow from the Temple in HYPERLINK "javascript:" . You can go in to your ankles, to your knees, to your loins—or, better still, you can swim in them.
God’s choicest blessings, of course, are for those who trust Him most fully. Once we have proved His faithfulness and sufficiency, we want to put away the crutches, props and pillows of “common sense.” Or, as someone has said, “Once you walk on the water, you never want to ride in a boat again.”
'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' Copyright 2007 © William MacDonald. 'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
