Simple Faith
Faith doesn’t have to be complicated or even profound. We often over-teach faith to the point of leaving the impression that only a special few could ever truly believe God. We try to “work up” our faith, confess our way to faith, and declare our faith. While faith can certainly grow, and there are different expressions of faith, nevertheless, in its most basic expression, it is simply a choice to believe in God’s goodness.
We are all believing something. Believing is a part of our human experience. We have chosen to believe or not believe things we are told. There are many voices that want us to believe them. There are political voices, religious voices, cultural voices, family voices, doctor’s voices, etc. Believing isn’t hard. We all do it every day. It is “what” we believe that is important. Consider the following event recorded in the gospel of Matthew.
When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith, let it be to you.” And their eyes were opened. (Mt. 9:27-29)
The phrase, “according to your faith, let it be to you,” can be intimidating for many. We tend to believe that these two blind men obviously had great faith in order to be miraculously healed from blindness. But did they? Let’s look at what transpired.
“Son of David, have mercy on us.” The cry for mercy was hardly a declaration of great faith. It was a call for help. There was a recognition on the part of the blind men that Jesus could help them. That was all. They couldn’t even see Him.
“Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” That was it! That was their faith! “Have mercy on us.” “We believe you can do it.” That was their faith. They simply believed that by mercy, Jesus could heal them. We often overlook how simple it was, and we try to make it complicated.
What have you chosen to believe? What voices are you listening to? We all have faith in something. Let’s choose to have faith in the goodness of Jesus.
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