John 4:43-54 | What's the lesson for me today?

Faith. Faith is truly the key that accesses all that Jesus has for us. I have often said that what you do or do not believe about the Lord shows up in our lives. I hold fast to this statement. This is a lesson that I need to have challenged regularly in my life. It seems easier to believe in the Lord when He blesses me and answers my prayers hastily. My faith can certainly grow in those seasons of plenty. But I can become reliant upon them. Rather than looking at the faithfulness of Jesus and recognizing His goodness that persists after me, I start to doubt what He has said.

How many times have I gone through seasons where I am seeing His love lavished on me, only to then go through a season of silence and think that God has abandoned me? Far too many for my own comfort. It is truly astounding how easy it is to begin to doubt the wonders of our God. Will we only believe when we are seeing it? I marvel at the nobleman in this passage. Not only did he not take no for an answer, but he ended up leaving Jesus and having to walk back home to Capernaum from Cana, which is about a 15 mile walk. I don't know that I would have had the faith to leave Jesus behind and simply trust what was said. But the nobleman did. And of course, we know the end of the story.

If we consider passages like Hebrews 11, we see that faith is completely and utterly essential for the believer.

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
-Hebrews 11:6

Being rewarded in faith does not mean that everything is sunshine and rainbows. Look at what was said just shortly after this passage.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
-Hebrews 11:35b-38

The reward was something they had to wait for. They had to trust in the Lord that He would provide that reward. In the same way as this nobleman, we have to walk our walk in faith anticipating the end reward that is yet to come. I may not see it at this immediate moment, but I need to trust what the Lord has said. I need to know His promises that I may trust in His promises.

What lesson are you taking for today?