Do you believe that God can truly do anything?
I sat down and began to read my Bible this morning and was flipping through Matthew. I read Matthew 8 - 9 and came across stories that I knew pretty well: such as when Jesus cleanses a leaper, the faith of a centurion and his suffering servant, Jesus healing a paralytic and forgiving his sins, a woman bleeding for 12 years and being healed by Jesus and then Jesus healing a ruler's daughter, and then Jesus healing 2 blind men.
As I read most of these stories, I saw a theme. Each person had a specific request of Jesus and each approached Jesus stating, "I know you can do this." And each time, Jesus did as they said. And he did so in a very specific way according to what they had said.
I first saw it with the centurion with his great faith. He approaches Jesus and requests that Jesus heals one of his servants. Jesus says, "OK. I'll go." But the centurion presses on. "No, wait. I know I'm not worthy of you. I know that if you say he is healed right here and now, he WILL be healed at this very moment. I also have authority over people and know what a small amount of power is like." Jesus is surprised at this answer, but also pleased. He replies, "I haven't met anyone with faith like you." and then says "Let it be done for you as you have believed". And the servant is healed right then and there, just as the centurion had requested of Jesus.
The next were with the woman bleeding for 12 years and the ruler's daughter. The bleeding woman ran after Jesus and thought, "If I just touch his garment, I will be healed". In Mark 5, it talks about how the instant she touched his garment, the blood dried up. Jesus felt his power leave him and turned to face the woman and told her that her faith has made her well. Again, it happened just in the way she believed it would happen.
And with the ruler's daughter, the ruler exclaimed to Jesus that if Jesus just laid his hand on his daughter, she would be raised from the dead. When Jesus encounters the daughter, he picks up the daughter's hand with his hand and indeed, she becomes alive. Again, it was just as the ruler had believed.
It was with this story, that I saw the pattern of people specifically stating Jesus's power and him carrying through, just as they had stated. And these people didn't just say, "I WANT you to do this." or "I WISH you could do this." They said to him, "I KNOW you can do this. I BELIEVE you can do this." I then thought, "God does as we believe He can do. And in a specific way too."
My thoughts were then confirmed when I read the story of the 2 blind men. They approach Jesus and ask for mercy. Jesus asks, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They reply "Yes Lord". And he then says, "According to your faith be it done to you."
After I read these passages, I was reminded that I need to continue to pray with faith that my Lord, God can do anything and be specific about my needs and my belief in his power. Many of us easily say, "God can do anything." But when it comes to actually asking God to do big and crazy things, we hesitate. We say, "But what if God does NOT do it? I'll be disappointed." That's when you just have to trust God that He knows what He is doing. But this can easily get into a whole other tangent about God's will and trusting in His faithfulness and wisdom.
I want to stick to specifically talking about faith and asking God for big and specific things. We may be afraid that He won't do it, but that doesn't lessen your faith in that you KNOW He can do it. In my own personal life, some of my most powerful prayers were where I specifically stated, "God, I believe you can do this. I know you can do." And I often say, "I believe. I believe" over and over again.
My first experience with prayer like this was when I was about in 4th grade. I actually remember reading a book that said, "If you just believe, anything can happen." So as a 11-year old, I gave it a shot. There was a festival at my school and the famous $50 dollar money tree was going to be raffled off. I always wanted to win it and just thought $50 was so much money as a 11 year old. So I bought about 10 tickets and put them in. There were 100s of other tickets already in, and I remember thinking, "OK. I believe I'm going to win. I really do. I believe." About an hour later, after certain performances, they announced they would be drawing the winner for the money tree. I remember bringing my knees up in my chair and bowing my head and saying over and over again, "I believe. I believe. I believe. God, I believe I will win. Come on God. They will pull a ticket with my name on it. I believe." I sat there for a few minutes, saying those words over and over again. They pulled out a ticket and....
I won.
I was pretty excited and my whole day was made right then and there. I think ever since that moment, I walked away with something that was worth way more than $50. I walked away with a firm belief that if I just believed, anything could happen.
Now as I've gotten older, praying like that can be hard to do and doubts seem to ran sack my mind often. But there are times, where I have prayed like that and it's an amazing and powerful experience. You just often have to reach down in yourself and find that source that says, "Anything can happen." It may feel child-like or you may even feel silly, but it's an important part of you. God put it there because He says, "I CAN make anything happen." When we put our faith and believe in God, He moves to action and can really move mountains and do just about anything.
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