When Mountains Make a Splash: What is Faith? Pt. 4

[Continued from Part Three. Start the series with Part One.] 

H: Holds Great Power

While we’ve already seen that faith isn’t a magic formula, faith that is grounded in God’s character holds tremendous power. Jesus told many people He healed that their faith had healed them (Mark 5:34, for instance). He also said directly that faith was a catalyst for miracles:

“Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:22-24) 

As cool as it sounds, this is really hard to do. Sure I think God can throw mountains into the sea, but if I saw it happen, I would be surprised and amazed. I might even have a hard time believing my eyes. Note too that this promise isn’t a blank check for those who ask for the wrong reasons. 

This opportunity also comes with a warning: with faith, all things are possible; without faith, God will limit His activity and we may miss out on some blessings. This happened during Jesus’ ministry when He travelled to His hometown. The Nazarenes still saw Jesus as just an ordinary person and didn’t think He could do much. Unfortunately for all but a few people, while He was there, He fulfilled their low expectations. 

Faith holds great power because God holds all power. Yet how easy it is to forget this! Think of the last time you shared prayer requests in a group. I’m guessing you heard of a few relatives in the hospital, some people in rough situations like breakups or unemployment, and maybe the infamous imagination-sparking “unspoken”. When you prayed, how confident was the group that the next time you met, those people would be healed and those situations miraculously resolved? I want to inspire you to talk to God to change lives, not to go through motions or prove to yourself that you care. And after you pray, take practical action (like we talked about in Pt. 3) and let God use you to answer your own request.

So, what is faith? We’ve seen that it’s a decision to believe truth about God, not an excuse for avoiding facts. We’ve also seen that faith is

Focused on God,

Always Reasonable,

Involves Action,

Takes Courage, and

Holds Great Power.

Believer, take confidence in the God who has the authority and power to do anything He wants. Be bold in asking and even expecting Him to use this power—He’s already promised it! And don’t be surprised when He moves mountains.