Devotional: Faith in Jesus

Date: February 12, 2008

Devotional: Faith in Jesus

Bible Verse: Luke 7:23

And blessed is he, whosoever

shall not be offended in me.

LUKE 7:23

This verse includes actual words spoken by Jesus to men sent to him by John the Baptist. John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to question him about his presence and identity…was Jesus the true Messiah? John’s uncertainty may have been due to the fact that Jesus did not show signs of being the political and conquering messiah that most Jews were anticipating in this particular time period.

The men arrived where Jesus was and told Him they had been sent by John the Baptist and asked, “Are you the Coming One (the Messiah), or do we look for another?” Jesus began that very hour curing people of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to the blind He gave sight.

Jesus then answered the messengers by saying, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” And…he ends his reply with our key verse for today, “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

Some things Jesus has said presents even Christians with a challenge. God didn’t make the Christian faith too easy.  Sometimes we’re not comfortable with His “hard sayings” because we don’t understand them—or we don’t like what they tell us to do.

But if we trust in Jesus in spite of our lack of comfort or understanding, He promises us we will be blessed. The term blessed is used often in the Bible, especially in the books of Psalm and Deuteronomy to describe the benefits that accrue to one who is devoted to the Lord and His Word.

But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8) In our Christian walk we’ve already seen that obedience get farther than qualms. Challenging doubt with faith brings a blessing, while settling for doubt just causes trouble.

In Hebrews in the 11^th chapter, there is a discussion about faith:

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. God gave his approval to people on days of old because of their faith. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. God accepted Abel’s offering to show that he was a righteous man. And although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us because of his faith.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“suddenly he disappeared because God took him. But before he was taken up, he was approved as pleasing to God. So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:1-6)

For we know that when this Earth is gone—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy spirit.

So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and no by seeing….for we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:1-7)