Faith

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

FAITH

Acts 14:8-10

8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

NIV

Here is an instance when it may not have been the faith of the healer, but the faith of the healed. That is not to say Paul and Barnabas did not have faith, for we are absolutely certain their faith was as strong as any man’s faith could be. But we have seen people healed before because of the faith of the healer, but here we are told that this lame man had faith to be healed. Here in lies the problem, why are so many people sick or live with infirmities? Is it because we do not have enough faith to be healed? It does not say this man had enough faith, but that he simple had faith.  Is it because we do not have anyone like Paul to recognize we have faith and to tell us to stand up on our feet? Do we need anyone like Paul? Why can’t we just look to Jesus and be healed? We head off to the doctor fast enough, but in many cases we are not healed, but just treated for our illness at a cost. This man’s healing was free, as was his salvation. If we truly believe we should be able to be healed, at least that is the theory. We say we believe, so why do we still have those infirmities? Do we just have enough faith for salvation, but not enough for a healing? Physical healings certainly are the most dramatic, drawing the attention of those around, but we also suffer from emotional and mental infirmities that we need to be healed from and in those cases others may not even know we are in need of a healing to tell us to stand up on our feet. In either case, many of us need healing, and healing is still possible in the name of Jesus. Although we are not told that Paul invoked the name of Jesus, we are certain that he was already speaking about Jesus when he looked at this man because he noticed this man was listening and had faith to be healed. Certainly we must assume this man was not without any sin, that he was not perfect, and we are not told that he confessed his sin, repented, asked for forgiveness, asked Jesus to come into his heart, acknowledging Jesus as his Lord and Savior. All we are told is that Paul noticed he had faith to be healed. Perhaps we have put to many prerequisites or conditions in place in order to be healed, when it appears all we need is faith. Who is there to notice our faith? Who is there to tell us to stand to our feet? If we do not have anyone to tell us, we must simply tell ourselves, notice we have faith, and tell ourselves in the name of Jesus stand up on our feet and be healed. But then that would require faith. So where is our faith?