When Our Faith Fail Part 4 Series

When Our Faith Fails Part 4

Help My Unbelief!

Scriptures: Mark 9:17-24; Mark 6:5-6

Introduction:

Some of you know that one of my best friends from my days in the Air Force was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor last year. He began treatment and was doing better but developed some complications last month. They have recently called in hospice as they believe they have done all that they can do. I will be flying to North Carolina early Thursday morning to go and visit him. Some have wondered if I was going to say goodbye and pay my last respect. To them I say no, I am going to encourage him and pray for his healing as I know no other way to pray. I believe in my heart that this is something I must do and as longs as there is breath within him, I will continue to believe God for his healing. Now this may sound strange to some of you, but let me explain. For the last few weeks I have been teaching on the subject “When Our Faith Fails”. In this series of messages I have focused on how what we believe impacts our faith. In the first three equations I discussed how stupidity, unbelief and wrong beliefs directly impact our actions and our faith. Based on our earlier discussions you should have an understanding of why I must pray for his healing once I get there. I cannot walk into his room believing that God does not want to heal him. That for me would open up questions that I cannot answer – like why not? According to God’s word healing is available for all of us even though we sometimes do not experience it. And since I do not have the right to determine who will be healed and who will not be healed, I will continue to stand in faith for anyone who is sick believing God to heal them. Notice I keep using the word “believing”. This speaks to a core belief that I have that my God is a God that heals not a God that makes us ill for we are His children. I am sharing this situation with you to introduce the fourth faith equation that we will focus on this morning.

The fourth faith equation states: “Faith + Some Beliefs + Action = Some Results”. All of us have some faith and some beliefs as it pertains to spiritual things. We have all had at least one prayer answered and that took some faith; some belief; and some action. The faith was demonstrated in the patience you exercised as you waited on your prayer to be answered. Your belief was demonstrated when you actually decided to pray about your situation and understood that God would answer. Finally your action was the actual prayer that you made to God. It is so easy to discount the small things as we listen to the testimonies of others who have experienced God answering the “major” prayers. What I need all of us to understand this morning is that even the small levels of faith powered by some beliefs are important as we continue to grow in Christ. So to get all of us on the same page for this morning, I want to share with you some everyday occurrences in your life that demonstrate your faith and your belief. I am using everyday examples so that you will understand the times that you have walked in faith and have demonstrated what you believe but maybe did not connect the dots as to the impact on your spiritual life. So consider these examples:

o If you woke up this morning and got dressed without once wondering if your legs or arms would work – you walked in blind faith and a strong belief. Remember, there are many people who must test their legs or arms before they use them to ensure that they will perform they way they are supposed to. If you did not think about it, you walked in faith because you believed your arms and legs would work and you did not consider that maybe your legs would not support you. Consider what would happen if you operated this way with God and you never doubted your interactions with Him.

o Whenever you say grace over your food to give thanks for it or to bless it, you are operating your faith and your beliefs. In this simple action you state that God provided the food for you and you are giving Him thanks for it. Also, because you do not know whose hands prepared it sometimes, you ask God to bless it believing that it is done when you asked Him. Again, this takes a certain amount of faith. Why say grace over your food if you did not believe God gave it to you or would bless it if you asked him to?