STRENGTH FOR MY DAYS
A Daily Devotional by Bishop David Bakare
Visible Faith
Saturday,
24 August
When Jesus saw their faith, he said
unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Mark 2:5
SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY: Matthew 9:1-8 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. 2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. 3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? 5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? 6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house. 8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
MORE LESSON: Acts 14:1-10 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: 6 He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. 7 And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; 8 And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. 9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
Every problem of man stems from unbelief.
God has given us all that pertains to life and godliness; in fact, God's
provision for man preceded his creation. God did not create man until He had
planted the source of food and comfort for Him. This is also evident in the
fact that as soon as a woman becomes pregnant, even before the baby is born,
the breast milk begins to form in preparation for nursing the unborn child.
This is God's idea and He has practised it from time immemorial. Despite the
fact that God has provided all that man needs, man still has a problem of
accessing them, and the reason is simple- doubt.
This was also the root cause of the problem
of the fall of man. When the snake tempted the woman, it said to her, ...hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?: Gen 3:1. All
that the devil was trying to do was to get the woman to doubt what God had said
concerning them. How will God plant a garden for man and still instruct him not
to eat of every tree of the garden? It can only be a trick of the devil and he
is still using that strategy against many people today. If Satan can get a man
to doubt what God has said, he has finished that man.
Therefore, everyone must guard his faith
and grow it until it becomes visible to him, the devil, his problems and people
around. How can a man grow his faith? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God: Rom. 10:17. Consistently hearing the Word
of God causes your faith to grow, and on the other hand, consistently listening
to the devil will diminish your faith.
In our text today, the Bible tells us that
Jesus saw the faith of the friends of the paralyzed man. It means faith is
visible. It could be that those men had heard a lot about what Jesus was doing
and that built their faith to the point that it became visible to Jesus. What
you hear has a direct link to the growth rate of your faith. A visible faith is
also the belief that correlates with your actions. You cannot claim you have
faith and act contrary to the instruction that will bring you victory. What made
the faith of the paralysed man’s friends visible is that they took action in
correlation to their faith. They knew they had come to the solution of their
problem and they did everything within their power to let their friend see
Jesus, The Bible says that Jesus saw their faith.
Could it be that the problem in your life
has lingered because your action is contradicting what you claim to believe?
Remove everything that weakens your faith and take positive actions as you
believe what God's Word has said. When you do so, your life will not remain the
same, in Jesus’ name.
Prayer/Action
* Build your faith by praying in the Holy Ghost for at least
10 minutes - Jude 1:20.
* Rebuke everything that dampens and diminishes faith - command them to be far from you.
TODAY’S PROPHETIC
PRAYER: Father, right now, stretch Your hand of
power and do a new thing in my destiny before this month is over, in Jesus'
mighty name.
