The verse listed above states plainly that it is impossible to please God without faith. Do you want to please God? Pleasing God is likely at the top of any believer’s spiritual to-do list. This is a point worthy to drive home. It pleases God to show up with massive amounts of faith.
The second part of the verse speaks a direct blessing to those who earnestly seek God. If you’re speaking with Jesus throughout the day, pouring your heart out, conversing as if He were your friend—and He is!—immersing yourself in His Word, you are indeed earnestly seeking Him. God’s promise in this verse is to reward you for your efforts. A reward from God is better than anything a human can ever offer you. I invite you to earnestly seek Him with me. You will find a loving Father, a Savior who redeems you, and His Holy Spirit to fill your very being with His love. And above and beyond, He will reward you with more of Him.
Father, thank you for Your wonderful promises. You are above and beyond what we could imagine. Thank you for revealing Yourself to us. Although we are not worthy, You have poured out Your love over us and called us Your children. We seek You earnestly. Not for what Your hand could give us but to see the beauty of Your face. Thank You for the promise of a great reward. You are great indeed.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Day 13
He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.
—Matthew 9:24-26 (NIV)
Are you familiar with the story? Jesus is walking along a crowded street, the masses have come out to adore Him, begging Him for healing, and some like the woman with the bleeding merely touched the hem of his robe for healing. Let me set the scene. Matthew 9 begins by telling us that Jesus just arrived by boat to his hometown. By this time, His fame as a healer was hitting a pinnacle. Not only was He great at gathering a crowd and regaling them with parables, but when He touched the sick and the lame they were as good as new. People realized His power. They wanted it. They came looking for it. They received it.
Jesus’ day was about to get busy. No sooner did Jesus step off the boat than He healed a paralytic carried over by his friends. (Side note: what great friends to help this man who could not move on his own. No doubt they carried him a great distance in hopes for his miracle.) No sooner did Jesus perform this miracle than He spotted a man named Matthew sitting in a tax collector’s booth and asked Mathew to follow Him, which further infuriated His opposition. After all, tax collectors were generally frowned upon. As if His day wasn’t exciting enough, John’s disciples came and questioned Jesus about the lack of fasting His disciples partook in—and as He was answering, a synagogue leader emerged from the crowd and knelt before Him. The synagogue leader let Jesus know that his daughter was sick and implored Jesus to come with him to lay His hand on her. He had heard and most likely seen what Jesus could do. His daughter was sick. She was dying. He was desperate. He knew his only hope was Jesus. How relieved he must have been to hear the roar of the swelling crowd. It could only mean one thing. Jesus was back in town just in time to heal the sick. He was going to make sure his daughter was one of them. Upon his request, Jesus and his disciples immediately got up and went with him. Just as they were cruising through the crowd, someone came up from behind and touched the hem of Jesus’ robe, a woman with a bleeding issue. Jesus turned around and assured her that her faith had healed her.
Finally, Matthew 9:23 (NIV) reads: “When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, ‘Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.”
Jesus did what He set out to do. I’m sure the synagogue leader was beyond happy. His family had been restored. His daughter was alive and healed. Who were these mourners who doubted Jesus? Surely they too must have been exposed to His miraculous powers of healing. But this girl wasn’t in need of healing anymore in their eyes. She had stopped breathing. The color was most likely gone from her skin. They knew what death looked like and they were staring it in the face. In those days it was customary for many to gather after a family experienced a loss and surely losing a child was a big one. Mourners came out, wailing, and funeral music was already blaring into the neighborhood, assuring everyone in the vicinity that the leader’s daughter had passed. I’m sure the synagogue leader heard this as well. But he knew he had a secret weapon with him—no matter how hard the doubts tried to take him down, make him admit defeat. He had something better than a doctor. He had the healer Himself by his side. Jesus was laughed at when he informed the wailers and the musicians to stop their chaos. He informed them that she was merely sleeping and they had a good chuckle over that one. He then threw them out on their rears. No doubt
