Take Jesus at his word, and...

John 4:50b (NIV)50 …The man took Jesus at his word and departed.[1]

These words jumped out at me as I read today. The son of a royal official was ill. The Father went to Jesus and begged him to heal his son. Instead of going with the man, Jesus told him that his son would live. At that, “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”

Two thoughts come to mind. The first has to do with how we seem to struggle with accepting the idea that God will do what he says he will do. The anxiety and worry with which we approach some of life’s situations betray our lack of trust in him.

The second thought keys off of what the man did. He believed…and departed. What would we do if we truly believed? Jesus said, “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”[2] I’ve heard the question put this way. “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” In my own life in the lives of those who have trusted their thoughts with me, more often our actions are shaped by our fears of what we cannot do than by our belief in what Jesus said we can do.

God places dreams in the hearts of every man and woman – a desire for something to be better tomorrow than what it is today. But when we fail to take God at his word regarding what he wants to accomplish in and through our lives, we allow our fears, anxieties, and insecurities to keep us from fulfilling the destiny God has planned for us.
It is time we stopped defining our world and our existence in our own limited view. It’s time for us to take God at his word, and…

© 2007, Ed Wandling

[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.