A L M A C I A S

CAN OUR FAITH BE SEEN?

We all must admit that one of the greatest blessings God has given us is the ability to see. For those of us who have always had a problem with our sight, we are very conscious of how great a blessing our sight really is. We see people who perhaps were born blind or became blind for one reason or another, and we feel sympathy for them because they are unable to see as we do. However, there is another sight that is even more important than our physical sight, and that is our spiritual sight. In Matthew 9:1-13 and Mark 2:1-7, we find several lessons dealing with spiritual sight.

In the passages under consideration, we learn how the Lord was able to use His spiritual sight to see the faith of several people. Not only that, He was able to see the faith that some would later have in Him and in God. Also, the Lord was able, with His spiritual sight, to see the lack of faith that some demonstrated by what they were thinking and by what they were saying. In these passages of Scripture, we find a paralyzed man being brought to Jesus so that Jesus would heal him. When this paralyzed man was brought by his relatives, or perhaps his friends, they found it was not possible to lay the sick man before Jesus. These men could have said to themselves, "This is hopeless, we will never be able to ask Jesus to heal our friend [or relative]." Yes, they could have said that and then just returned home, but that is not what they did. You see, these men, as well as the paralyzed man, did not give up easily. These were men of great faith. They figured that as long as they could get their friend to Jesus, all things would work out. Therefore, they went up to the roof of the building were the Lord was. They began immediately to tear it down and to lower the paralyzed man through the opening so that he might at least have an opportunity to be healed. We read in the Scriptures that through their determination to get their friend to the Lord, He was able to see their faith. Their faith moved them to action; and when they put their faith into action, the Lord was able to see it.

Just as the Lord was able to see the faith of these men, He can also see our faith or lack of it. What makes congregations be what the Lord expects them to be? Not just faith alone, but faith that is put into action. How is it that some congregations, whether large or small, are able to accomplish much in the work of the Lord, while others accomplish very little or nothing? What about individual Christians? How is it that some are always busy in the Lord's work, while others spend their time giving excuses for why they have not been able to accomplish anything for the kingdom? Some individual Christians, preachers, and elders will always be producing in the Lord, because they are just like these men who never gave up, and thus they put the faith they have in the Lord into action. When the Lord observes your faith, or mine, what is He able to see?