I really admire the tenacity of the Canaanite women, who approached Jesus for the deliverance of her demon oppressed daughter. She would not take no for an answer, as she pressed Jesus for help. Jesus considered her insistence as faith, in fact, He said that she had great faith, and thus would receive what she desired. (Matthew 15:28) It is interesting to note that the people Jesus said had greatest faith were gentiles. Those who had the law and the promises, who were trained as children to reverence God and obey His word, were the ones who most struggled in just believing. To many Jews faith was based on being a descendent of Abraham, not in following his example. Jesus confronted this false understanding by saying that faith was believing in God as Abraham had done.
To have great faith, you must believe in a Big God and a little devil. The size of your faith is determined by the size of your God. In Mark 11:22, we read that we are to have faith in God. The preposition “in” is not in the original text. It should read: “have faith God” or have the God-kind-of-faith. This is the faith that can say to the mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea. It is the faith that sees nothing as impossible. How big is your God? Did you know that God is so big that all of the universe, peoples, time, “multiverses”, etc., are found in Him. Wow! God is BIG! Now, the devil is really small. He is so small he can fit under your foot. You must understand this so that you don’t make the problems you face bigger than they really are. When God is big, demons tremble, diseases shrivel up and disappear, heavens are opened and the blessings come down.
Sin has blinded our eyes to seeing God as He really is. Sin makes the circumstances, we find ourselves in, our destiny. Sin imprisons us in a natural mindset in which self-preservation and self-identity are determined by our work. Man, thus, becomes the center and source of life; resulting in insecurity and fear. Faith, on the other hand, takes you from where you are into God’s purposes. People of faith move and grow. They increase and multiply. They come through financial problems, health problems, temptations, and trials. They go deeper into God and grow stronger in their faith. The Word of God is in their mouths and discouragement does not get them down. Faith takes the fearful and makes them courageous. Faith sees the size of the battle as a prophecy that points to the size of the victory.
Abraham is considered our “Father of Faith”. He didn’t start out with great faith, but grew in his faith. We have all been given a measure of faith, in other words our faith is like a muscle that needs to be nurtured and exercised. Let’s look at how Abraham grew his faith. First, he left the comfort of what he knew in order to arrive at the destiny God had prepared for him. You cannot enter without leaving. Then, he envisioned God’s promise to him. What you can see, God will give it to you. The next lesson is that Abraham could not work to earn the promise, he had to receive it, as a gift, by faith. Faith takes you out of the possible to the impossible. From the place of believing, Abraham had to be obedient. Miracles occur by acting on what we believe. That is why it is called “working miracles”. The blessings come after obedient faith, but never can be hoarded. They are to be shared and given away. This is how Abraham grew his faith, and if he could do it, so can we.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Matthew 15:28; Mark 11:22-24; Galatians 3:7-9, 14; Romans 4:13-22; Hebrews 11