Faith Makes A Difference

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign; He can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it. He exercises His sovereignty when He does things without asking for our opinion or permission. He doesn’t work in a democracy. In other words, He doesn’t take a vote, He just does what He wants to do. Dr. Richard Strauss, my pastor for many years, had the best definition of sovereignty: “God is the highest and best, and does what He pleases in heaven and earth.”

That’s why I’m astounded that God primarily has chosen to do His work through people. Take Moses, for example. God didn’t need Moses to part the Red Sea. He could have, with the proverbial snap-of-the-finger, done it on His own, yet He commanded Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea. And what about Noah. God didn’t need Noah to build an ark. He created the universe. How hard would it have been for Him to create an ark? We see it throughout history, God has worked through human instruments to accomplish His purposes. 

When God acts, it’s by His sovereignty. When we act on the things of God, it’s faith. Faith and God’s sovereignty is a fascinating thing. Take healing, for example. Jesus didn’t heal everyone, but He did heal the ones who called out to Him. Like the blind man in Luke 18, who cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” [18:13]. Someone near him told him to be quiet, but he kept yelling. Jesus heard his cry for help, stopped, and the man was healed.

And what about miracles? Well, Jesus can do anything. Yet Matthew said that Jesus was limited in doing miracles in Nazareth because of the people’s unbelief. My dear friends, God responds to faith. Unbelief hinders the work of God. Faith unleashes it.

And [Jesus] did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Matthew 13:58