READING:
One-year plan: 1 Kings 5-7, John 4:27-54
Two-year plan: Numbers 23:27-25:18, Mark 11:20-33
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I can’t imagine what the desperate father must have been feeling. We know his son was dying, and we know the father pleaded with Jesus to come heal his boy. Jesus responded with tough words about people who must see signs and wonders to believe, but the father’s desperation still drove him to beg Jesus to “come down before my boy dies” (John 4:49). Jesus’ response in turn, then, was to tell the man to go home in faith for “your son will live” (John 4:50).
The father then believed what Jesus had said (on the basis of His words and yet without a sign), surely hurried toward his home, and learned along the way that his son was well just as Jesus had said. He and his whole household then fully believed; as one writer describes this man’s journey, “he had an inadequate faith based only on miraculous signs (4:48); then a preliminary faith in Jesus’ words (4:50); and finally a full-fledged faith that included his whole family.”*
May our faith grow today as we continually learn to trust Jesus’ words!
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you sometimes seek a sign to believe? Do you take Jesus at His word?
PRAYER: “Lord Jesus, I do believe. Help me when I struggle.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 1 Kings 8, John 5:1-30
Two-year plan: Numbers 26, Mark 12:1-17
*Osborne, G., Philip W. Comfort. (2007). Cornerstone biblical commentary, Vol 13: John and 1, 2, and 3 John(p. 76). Tyndale House Publishers.
