Matthew 17:14-20
Faith and
Jesus Healing a Demon Possessed
Boy
17:14
When they came to the crowd, a man came up to
Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,
15 "Lord, have mercy on my
son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he
often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 "I brought him to Your
disciples, and they could not cure him."
17 And Jesus answered and
said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation,
how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put
up with you? Bring him here to Me."
18 And Jesus rebuked him,
and the demon came out of him, and the boy was
cured at once.
19 Then the disciples came
to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not
drive it out?"
20 And He said to them,
"Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly
I say to you, if you have faith the size of a
mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move
from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing
will be impossible to you.
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It is meant to change
the way that we think, and the way that we live.
Commentary
by Bob Pardue
A Question of
Faith
Our vocal ensemble once sang
a song entitled "Mountain Mover". I thought the
title was really catchy but these verses really
bring it to life. How much faith do we really
have?
Jesus said the disciples were
unable to drive the demon from the boy because they
lacked the faith to perform this miracle. How much
faith? The size of a mustard seed.
Now, you've most likely heard
this saying all you life about; "If you have the
faith of a mustard seed ..." so I'm not going to
take up your time with this detail.
What I would like to
concentrate on is why the disciples of Christ could
not heal the boy.
Lack of faith? Yes, but let's
dig deeper. It's possible that the disciples tried
to drive the demon out using their own power, not
the unlimited power of God. They might not yet have
realized that they could not heal anyone or drive
out a single demon--but God could.
How often do we take it upon
ourselves to try and solve our own problems or go
in the direction we want to go instead of listening
to the advice of God through prayer?
I can't speak for you but I
am a stubborn person, many times deciding to go my
own way or believing my answer is better than
God's. In truth, this way just doesn't
work.
If we will only pray to God
(and listen to His answer) to help us with our
situation, we can become "Mountain
Movers"!
Love In Christ
- Bob
If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment to
go
here and take the
first
steps to salvation.
Another
Bible Study Lesson Online For Living
...
Matthew
17:1-13 - Jesus and
transfiguration
- The transfiguration of Christ gives Him
authority as the Son of God in this Baptist
reading.
These verses about Jesus and the faith of a
mustard seed are from New American Standard
Bible
Comments are welcome. Please email
me with any questions or comments you
may have.
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