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 UNDERSTANDING GOD'S MERCY

Matthew 13:58 “And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.”

I have heard it said that somehow the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ was somehow limited by the unbelief of the folks in His hometown of Nazareth.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing limits the power of God nor His grace give to sinners to redeem, heal, and restore them to God. What we see is the mercy of God towards broken people. He will not reinforce unbelief.

If someone refuses to believe who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the Lord in His mercy will not reinforce that unbelief by manifesting His healing and delivering power upon the one who does not believe. Otherwise, we broken humans might come to think that we can get from God what we want because we want it, not because we have surrendered our lives to Him in faith. Christianity is not refined paganism where we get God to do what we want because we have obligated Him to act on our behalf because of some kind of mechanistic “believing” on our part. He is the Lord. We are not.

When Jesus states, “Your faith has made you well.” He is reinforcing a persons’ belief that He is the Messiah, the Lord, and Giver of Life; He is the Lord to Whom all worship and obedience are rightfully due. He will always reinforce that faith. It may look different than what we have assumed or decided is needed, but we can trust Him in all things. He knows what we need, when we need it and how it needs to be manifest.

The focus is on Who He is, not what we want Him to do. We seek His Face…not His hands. He knows what we need. We need to pray in honest dependency upon Him in all things!

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