Lessons from Matthew 9: Faith in Jesus
In Matthew 9, we learn to have faith in Jesus and how to live like Jesus. What can we take from this chapter and use in our life today?
In our last lesson we looked at examples of Jesus’s amazing power. That same power is available to us! And when He displays it in our lives, we are to spread His resurrection power with others.
Now let’s look at verses 27-31.
Jesus did not respond immediately to the blind men’s pleas. He waited to see if they had faith. Not everyone who says he wants help really believes God can help. Jesus may have waited and questioned these men to emphasize and increase their faith.
So when you think God is too slow in answering your prayers, consider that He might be testing you as He did the blind men.
Do you really believe God can help you? Do you really want His help?
Through faith in Jesus Christ we experience the power of God in our lives.
These blind men were persistent. They went right up to Jesus because they knew He could heal them and they would let nothing stop them from finding Him. That is real faith in action.
If you believe that Jesus is the answer to your every need, don’t let anything or anyone stop you from reaching Him.
Jesus told the people to keep quiet about His healings because He didn’t want to be known only as a miracle worker. He healed because He had compassion on people, but He also wanted to bring spiritual healing to a sin-sick world. And because Jesus’s work was alive and well while He was on earth, the demonic forces seemed especially alive as well.
In verse 32, once again Jesus responded with power to the need of an individual, one brought by others. He drove out the demon and released the man so he could talk. The crowd responded in amazement, surprised by joy.
While the Pharisees questioned, debated, and dissected Jesus, people were being healed and lives were being changed right in front of them. Their skepticism was not based on insufficient evidence but on jealousy of Jesus’s popularity.
Do you recognize and acknowledge Jesus’s power at work today? Do you give God the glory and thanks for what He is doing in your life or in the lives of others? Will you begin to give God the glory for the great things He does?
And will you as a believer expect and look for God’s power at work, changing you and your circumstances too?
Terri Hamman
Faith & Fitness Coach