| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 9 |
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There is more of this story. Jesus healed the boy. Then when the disciples were alone with him they asked him, “How is it that we could not cast it out?” Jesus answered, “Because of your little faith.” Think of the impotence of these nine men! They tried to cast out the demon, but it defied them. Yet they need not have failed. They ought to have been able to cast it out. They had received Jesus as the Messiah. They loved him, they believed on him. But their faith was weak. Look at the case. Nine friends of Christ, disciples, too, ordained to do great things, baffled now, balked, failing to do a work of mercy because their faith was too little! Blessing, healing, kept from a poor distressed boy, because a company of Christ’s friends had not faith enough!
There is something startling in this when we begin to apply it to ourselves. We are Christ’s, we love Christ, we follow him, and we profess to believe on him, we are banded together for his service. About us are many who do not know their Lord, who has had no experience of his goodness. If these are to receive the blessing of Christ’s love and grace, it must be through us. Do we never stand in the presence of great human needs, as the disciples did that night at the foot of the mountain? Do we ever fail to give help, to cure, to restore, to comfort, because of our little faith? Is there danger that Christ himself shall not be able to do mighty works of blessing in our community because of our unbelief? He will not do the mighty works, the gracious works, without us.
We need not go to him in prayer when we come upon some great need – a man in the grip of temptation, a woman in deep sorrow, a child in distress, a soul unsaved – and ask him to do the work of love and grace. He says at once to us, “Go you and do it and I will work with you.” We must do the work – he will not do it without us, and if we do not do it, Christ’s work in that case will fail, and the responsibility will be ours. At Nazareth it was said that Jesus could not do many mighty works because of the unbelief of the people. The suffering in the town went uncomforted and unrelieved because of the unbelief of the rulers. Is anybody going unhelped, uncomforted, unsaved about you, because your faith is so small, because there is no hand the Master can use?
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