According to my faith

I was reading in Matthew 9 today when I saw that Jesus healed according to other's faith.  Jesus healed a paralyzed man in Matthew 9:2 according to the faith of the men who brought him.  Jesus told a bleeding woman that her faith healed her in Matthew 9:22.  In Matthew 9:29 Jesus healed two blind men according to their faith.  I wonder how many miracles and answered prayers I've missed out on because I didn't trust God enough?

Because I don't ask

Sometimes things are right in front of us and we don't see it.  I've heard in sales that what separates an average salesperson from a great one is that the great one's ask for the sale.  God wants to give us the best.  I wonder how many times I limit God by my small mindset?  I convince myself that what I'm praying for is not that important.  I make the decision for God without even asking.  James 4:2b-3 says.

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

I could care less about getting rich.  I didn't get into vocational ministry to make money.  But God has given me a dream.  It has been stuck in my head for almost 4 years.  It hasn't happened.  Was that dream just indigestion?  Or have I just said that my request is not important to God?  It is a God-sized dream.  It is something that I have no way of doing on my own.  Maybe I'm the problem.  Maybe I just ask with the wrong motives.  My dream has nothing to do with money.  So it isn't to get rich.  I'm asking God today.  I'm not sure how much I believe.  But God helps those with just a little faith.  That is all I have.

Causing others to sin

Jesus talked about the consequences of causing others to sin in the New Testament.  But it wasn't a New Testament problem exclusively.  Hosea talked about this in Hosea 4:5-7 (NIV)

You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you.  So I will destroy your mother-my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.  “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the lawl of your God, I also will ignore your children.  The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

 I don't think we take how our sins can cause others to sin seriously enough.  I pray that my life will draw people closer to Jesus rather than causing people to sin.  I'm reminded by that song by Sweet Comfort Band called You Led Me to Believe. 

You led me to believeAnd I followed everything you'd say and doYou led me to believeYou've changed your way of thinking nowBut I know what is trueAnd I will keep on holding onTo all the thingsYou led me to believe

I don't know the entire story behind the song but obviously, someone influential in the author becoming a Christian had walked away from their faith.  Thankfully, the author didn't turn his back on God.  I pray that nothing in my life will cause someone else to stumble.