Our Scripture for today is John 16:32.
“Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”
Jesus was at the end of his earthly trail. He knew that soon he would be arrested and crucified. He knew, but his apostles did not. Jesus told them, “The hour is coming.” When it did, he knew they would run from him. You will “leave me alone,” he said.
He knew that when the arrest would come, neither Peter, James, John, or any other apostle would stay with him. He would be left alone to face the murders. Then he told them the beautiful words, “Yet, I am not alone, for the father is with me.”
Each time I read those words, they remind me of what real faith is. Real faith is knowing that God is always with you, and feeling it.
Many years ago I knew a Godly man who was describing fighting a grass fire at his house. He told a group of men in a meeting, “We were fighting the fire. It was hard, but we were winning.” One of the men interrupted him, “You said, ‘We were fighting the fire.’ Who else was there with you? He answered, “The Lord.” He wasn’t being cute or pretending. That is the way he thought.
Sometimes we pray for faith and we work on building our faith, but do we know what faith looks like? Real faith looks like, “Yet I am not alone, but the Father is with me.” It is evident in the phrase, “We were fighting the fire.”
Faith is not just knowing that God is with us, but feeling that God is by our side at all times.
Too often, we are like the little boy going to bed at night. His mother came to tuck him in and he asked her to stay in the room with him. “I’m scared of the dark,” he said. His mother said, “You don’t need me here; Jesus is with you.” The little boy said, “I want somebody who has skin.”
Does God feel real to you? Can you feel his presence? When he does, then that is what real faith feels like.
Lonnie Davis
Amen! Food for thought.