Step Up

Luke 6: ⁶ On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught; and a man was there whose right hand was withered. ⁷ Now the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He healed on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him. ⁸ But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got up and came forward. ⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I ask you whether it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ And after looking around at them all, He said to him, “Stretch out your hand!” And he did so; and his hand was restored. ¹¹ But they themselves were filled with senseless rage, and began discussing together what they might do to Jesus.

I again and again have believers around me that try to tell me what God CANNOT do, instead of believing GOD CAN DO ANYTHING! If these religious-sounding people are proved wrong by God intervening in a situation and doing the impossible, in order to be right, they will deny that God did it and even get mad when proving THEIR point. I have spent the last few years in my faith walk proving God's point, and look at like I am a fool, or a religious nut. First of all, I am not religious. I have a personal born-again relationship with the Lord Almighty, and I trust Him completely. There are times when that trust is beat on by my lack of faith, but God brings me back to His ways through the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Not mine BIG faith, but God's BIG provision. The need for me is to "step up" into that faith He supplies and begin to totally trust God and His purposes. There was a point in the guy with the withered hand, where Jesus told him to "step up and come forward," and scripture says he got up, stretched out his hand, and his hand was healed.

If you have been lurking in the shadows so as not to reveal that you have this kind of God-can-do-anything faith, then now is the time to step up and show the faith you DO have and you are living in. God is the one who brings our faith out of the shadows and back to reality as only He can do. Our part is to have faith and trust Him to do what His Word says. The religious people of Jesus' day not only doubted who He was, but they gave excuses to keep Him from healing anyone, including this man with a withered hand. But the man had faith, and Jesus came through to the disgust of those same religious leaders. Are you trying to explain God away, or are you believing Him to work in every way possible? If you are a follower of The Way as the early disciples were, you KNOW and believe in the power of God to be able to do exceeding more than we ask. Paul closed out this very thought, and way of life for us in Ephesians 3: ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

I don't know about your faith, but my faith calls me to "step up" and have faith, even when things seem against you, because God is my strength and my hope and He works greater than I can even believe, because He is God!! STEP UP!!

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren