The Importance of Faith

“He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’” Luke 8:25 “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.” Mark 6:5-6

Jesus did not lack ability to heal. Rather, the whole of the New Testament teaches that in order for a person to receive what God offers, he must have faith. Jesus offered to His generation physical healing, evidenced by the whole of the narrative of His life. The lack was on the part of the people who demonstrated an absence of faith.

To our generation He offers eternal life, but in order for us to receive it, we must believe. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26

Of those Jesus healed in His public ministry, Scripture records only a few (like the demon possessed man in Mark 5) who wanted more of Jesus than just temporal healing. When you seek from the Savior eternal life, are you in reality seeking it in hopes of obtaining temporal gain? God, who knows your motives, will not grant eternal life as a means of acquiring temporal benefit. Faith is critically important, but it must be faith properly directed.

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