Something God has been teaching me about lately is faith.
I think that faith brings joy to the heart of God. Simple, childlike faith. Faith that believes God is good, trusts in Him and follows Him through Jesus, and chooses to live like He is good and run with it.
I belong to Jesus. My sins are forgiven. I am trusting in Him for salvation, by faith. And God wants me to live by faith, too.
Trusting the Father’s loving heart.
I can find myself so negative, dreading what could go wrong; assuming the worst. Praying but not trusting the Father’s heart.
But something hit me the other day: I think God is thrilled when those who are His forgiven children through Jesus (as we all can be when we come to Him on His terms through the cross) choose to trust in His goodness: to expect Him to be good. I think that kind of faith thrills His heart, and makes Him smile. I think it’s a faith He loves to draw out; and to respond to.
I was chatting to a friend the other day. She was telling me about her little girl. Simple, childlike prayers from a little girl too young to understand all our doubts.
She was two. “Jesus, please heal Mammy’s sore throat.”
Gone. Just like that. No sore throat anymore!
Her mum was shocked. But she wasn’t. To her, it was simple. She was sure Jesus would answer. And He did.
I think that’s the kind of faith God delights in. The kind of faith that just expects Him to come through with something good.
The kind of faith that trusts in the love and goodness of the Father’s heart, and believes that He will answer in a wonderful way.
I know it’s tough. The Father doesn’t always answer the way we want Him to. This is a broken world. It’s messy down here. Sometimes there are long delays; obstacles we didn’t expect; difficulties that threaten to choke out our faith.
Pain that God longs to comfort, if we let Him, because He knows, and He cares so much.
And that’s when we get to choose. And then when our faith means the most. Will we believe that God is good then; choose to trust Him then when it doesn’t make sense what He is doing?
I think when we choose to trust then, in spite of our breaking hearts and our deep-rooted fears and all of the things that don’t fit into what we expected Him to do, it really makes Him smile.
Choosing to love God even when our hearts are breaking, because we love Him more than the things we want from Him.
Choosing to trust Him because He is good, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Like the woman in Matthew 15:21-28.
She needed something from Jesus. She knew He could heal her demon-possessed daughter. She asked Him to.
He seemed to say no.
She asked again.
He seemed to say no.
But He did answer.
He was drawing out her faith.
And she kept on believing.
Because she knew how good He is, she banked on His goodness anyway, and pressed in in prayer because she trusted.
And He answered her.
‘Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.’ Matthew 15:28
It means surrendering to Who He is, and His way of doing things. It means choosing to love Him first; more than what we are asking for. It means seeking His Kingdom first. It means letting Him decide how He answers, and when. But, if we are doing that and following Him through Jesus, I think we get a blank cheque and a broad, wide, wild invitation to ask… and to trust Him to answer in a way that is so good.
And to choose to trust His heart in the midst of it all.
Sometimes we are doing that, and we’re doing well! But then, like Peter, I think we can start looking at the waves instead of at the Lord:
‘But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”Matthew 14:30
Peter was doing well! He didn’t need to give up! He just needed to keep his eyes on Jesus.
Keep going. Keep believing. Don’t focus on the waves. Focus on the Lord.
Keep going! Surrender your heart and your desires, yes. Surrender your ideas, yes. But keep pressing in in faith.
He does answer. I think it’s generally with something far, far better than we asked for, because He goes to the heart of our prayers and answers on another dimension.
And He wants to help us grow in that faith, too. 🙂
You can’t expect Him to be better than He is, because He is better than our wildest dreams.
And I think it thrills Him when you trust Him. 🙂
(God loves to be good to us, even though none of us deserve it, because we have turned away from Him. He is so good that He gave His Son to provide a way of rescue from the eternal judgement we all face. Jesus paid the price on the cross so that you can be forgiven. Turn from wrong. Ask Him to forgive you. Choose to follow Him, with His help. Surrender your life into His hands, and His way. Let Him be in charge of your life. He will rescue you for eternity, and blow you away with His goodness).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Caroline Abblitt 
Love it- I agree with your thought he was drawing out her faith.
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