15.j.“Go; your son will live.”

John 4:46  So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Signs and wonders can lead a person towards belief in God, and can validate a heavenly messenger – but they can also have no effect on a person.  Signs and wonders from God are obviously good things, but they should not form the foundation of our faith. We should not depend on them to prove God to us. In themselves, signs and wonders cannot change the heart; Israel saw incredible signs at Mount Sinai and even heard the very voice of God, yet a short time later they worshipped a gold calf.  We can see true faith in this official.  He did not seek a sign to believe.  He believed in Jesus’s word.  “Go, your son will live”.  The father begged at mercy’s door for the life of his son and believed what Jesus told him.  The man said, “Come and save my son”.  It is as if the father believed Jesus could heal his son if his son was in the presence of Jesus’s touch. Jesus pointed out to this man that there was a serious issue with his faith.  I am sure the father did not expect to hear a rebuke, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”  But, after this, the father believed his son was healed at the moment Jesus said, “Go, your son lives”.  He had faith to trust in the healing.  This belief in healing at the word of Jesus grew.  It grew from, “my son will be healed because Jesus said so”, to “Jesus is the Messiah, Christ, Son of God.”  When our belief in Jesus Christ awakens our hearts, minds, and souls, we are transformed deep within.  If only we would continue to grow in faith then we might say like ShadrachMeshach, and Abednego, “our God can save us, but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow down and worship your idol.”  When our faith grows we come to a place where we have faith to believe but allow the purpose and plans of God to dictate the outcome without hindering our faith.

Joy comes in the morning

Genesis 41:51    “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

Isaiah 65:16    …..because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.

Psalms 30:5     For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Psalms 30:11     You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,

Acts 7:10    and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Joy comes in the morning, former troubles are forgotten, rescued from afflictions, joy, fruitful, favor, wisdom, dancing, gladness. 

Trouble, trials, hardships come in many forms.  Relationships (family, employees, employers, neighbors, classmates, church members, teammates, colleagues, peers, bosses,) can weigh heavy on our heart when they are strained. 

It seems as though, out of nowhere, things just go south and are very hurtful.   Rest, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, love seem like they are but words long forgotten.  Our heart hurts and our mind can’t seem to find reasons for the season we are in.There are times when these come upon us because of us and other times it is a consequence of others. 

Know this!  All things are known by God.  All things are going to work out for the good of them who are called by His name.  God has plans and purposes well beyond what we can understand.  God is willing (steadfast) able (all powerful) and loving.   

“I have plans and purposes for you, plans to prosper you not to harm you”

“He will give you another comforter, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

“I will never leave you or forsake you”

“In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me”

“He will quiet you by his love”

“Who then can ever keep Christ’s love from us? When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because He doesn’t love us anymore? And if we are hungry, or penniless, or in danger, or threatened with death, has God deserted us? No, for the Scriptures tell us that for his sake we must be ready to face death at every moment of the day — we are like sheep awaiting slaughter; but despite all this overwhelming victory is ours though Christ who loved us enough to die for us.

For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep Gods’ love away. Our fears for today, or worries about tomorrow or where we are — high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean — nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us.”

 

Integrity of heart

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Psalms 101:2  I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.  A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

Psalms 119:106    I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.

2 Chronicles 31:20-21    Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.  And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.

Genesis 18:19    For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice

Deuteronomy 6:7    You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

1 Kings 11:4    For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

2 Chronicles 15:17     But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.

Isaiah 38:3     and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

When David came to royal power, he didn’t say: “Now I can live the good life.” he said “I will ponder the way that is blameless. He understood that the sense of God’s presence was connected to obedience.  1 John 1:6-7: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  David understood life had to be real in his conduct within his own house.  You must not gauge your worth by what the outside world thinks and says about you.  David knew that one measure of a righteous life was what one chose to set before the eyes. There are many wicked things to set our eyes upon, and the lust of the eyes is a lure of this world.  Keep your heart, mind and soul tuned to God’s word with a deep desire to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey.  Learn to know the ways of God and purpose to choose to walk in them.