Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
After 50 years in the Faith, I faced a challenge. My 60-year old daughter suddenly contracted brain cancer. Yes, I had the faith to believe for her complete healing, and when I prayed God told me she was entitled to an additional 14 years.
So I prayed believing this giant mountain would be cast into the sea. I knew that to God, the size of the mountain does not matter. Humans see healing of a headache as so much smaller a task for a big God, but truth be told, to God all miracles are the same size. So, healing is not dependent on my faith, after all, I have no ability to healing anything.
But, my faith is not in my faith; all faith is ultimately is His ability, and His word. Yes, He wants to heal.
So, when she died 22 months later, I was actually surprised. I had complete faith in God’s ability and willingness to heal her. What went wrong?
The answer came years later. Most human bengs are surprised that God can keep track of the details of the personal lives of seven-plus billion people. We have anthropomorphized so much the humanness of Jesus, which we all need to do to make Him real in our lives, that we forget that God has no limitations on what He can do.
As a friend of mine put it, God has only “Only Children.”
Everyone is totally His concern. And He makes His decisions on the basis of what He deems good for us. We also forget that our comfort and joy is not His main purpose for us in life. His goal is that He wants us fully prepared to have access to and permeance in His heaven. So He is limited by our response to Him, and that is what God told me. Yes, I have the faith to move that mountain but….
It was not my mountain
In legal terms, this is called “standing.”
Standing https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/standing Standing, sometimes referred to as standing to sue, is the name of the federal law doctrine that focuses on whether a prospective plaintiff can show that some personal legal interest has been invaded by the defendant. It is not enough that a person is merely interested as a member of the general public in the resolution of the dispute.
God said I did not have standing in this case.
Fifty-odd years ago, friends called me to the bedside of a woman in her forties dying of cancer. I did not know her, but my friends knew I had extra faith and so I went to her hospice bedside. Starting at her feet I prayed for every part of her body up to an including her head. Afterwards my friends asked if she would be healed – several times. I could not lie about this, but had no assurance, so I told them I was sorry, and went on my way. Maybe they thought my faith was so great I could heal or work miracles. Later I realized that what I had done was sort-of a Protestant version of “last rites.”
Within a year, I learned why my prayers had failed to raise her up. Her husband and her 16 year-old daughter were involved in incest, a very serious sin which results in death. Regardless of God’s law in this case, this was their mountain, not mine, and not that of her friends.
Just as it was my daughter’s mountain. Of whatever decisions on her part had been made in the past, I had no knowledge. God was holding her responsible for her decisions over which I had zero control. So when the disease came, she did not have the requisite assets to move her mountain. She had standing; I did not. Period. My love and concern for her was not abated but He could not countermand those decisions on her part. Our decisions create our life.
Your life is hid with Christ.
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
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©CorneliaScottCree.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission, from this blog’s author and/or owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to CorneliaScottCree.com. Thank you for cooperating in the effort to give glory to God.