Faith Gives Way to Sight

My sister and I buried three grandchildren in less than four years. Against this background, I started searching through Scripture to prepare for a class I was to lead at a healing mission for the Order of St. Luke on how ‘faith’ impacts prayer. This must be crazy, I thought. What was the point of talking about ‘faith’ or prayer when God had so clearly not answered our prayers for the lives of our grandchildren?

A pastor once told me to start at the beginning. This led to an interesting look at the Old Testament where ‘faith’ is only found 16 times in the NIV translation, usually in terms of breaking faith or broken faith.

That did not help. So I turned to the Gospels to see what they offered. Even the Gospels used ‘faith’ only 40 times, often linked to the same story told by a different writer. When Jesus uses the word ‘faith’ and links it to the result, we see two answers: ‘great faith’ (Matthew 8:10) or the lack of faith (Matthew 13:58).

How great does our faith need to be? Literally thousands of people across the United States and around the world through Breakthrough, were in prayer for our grandchildren, yet they died. And, I have watched the prayers of these people answered many times over a period of 25 years. This group of intercessors has ‘great faith.’ They were not strangers to the challenges of difficult prayer. Nor did these experienced prayer warriors have a lack of faith.

There had to be an answer within God’s Word. So I started working my way through Paul’s letters, where I found he uses the word ‘faith’ 149 times. Certainly here I would find the answer. When I reached 1 Corinthians 15:19, I stopped short. I read it again.

“If we have only faith (hope) in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

Is Paul telling me that if I have faith in Christ, I am to be pitied? He is making a stipulation that if he only relies on faith in this life and not also in the life to come, it's a pity.

Let me explain.

Paul is writing from the perspective that he, like us, knows the risen Christ. Therefore, in his first letter to the Corinthians 15:12-20, he directs our attention to the importance of believing in the resurrection of Christ. In verse 16, Paul writes that, “If the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”

Here was the Scripture to open my eyes to see for the first time the importance of having ‘faith’ based not only in Christ, but more importantly in His resurrection.

How do we learn to have ‘faith’ in Christ’s resurrection, so that our faith in Christ will not be worthless? The best witness is found in Mark 9:24 – “Immediately the father cried out, ‘I do believe; strengthen my weak faith.’”

How would Jesus help me to see past the graves of our three grandchildren? Jesus led me to Luke 24:6 – “He is not here; He has risen! Remember what He told you while He was still with you in Galilee.” And here, the key word is “remember.” All well and good in the classroom, but what I remember is standing at a hillside cemetery watching a group of my son’s friends shovel dirt onto my grandson’s coffin.

Jesus has helped me to overcome my ‘unbelief’ through the gift of sight. He led me through a series of pictures that captured the answers to other prayers. First, He told me to look in the mirror, and then He reminded me that without His touch to keep my heart pumping, I would not be alive. What about my wife’s 1986 cancer operation, “Did I not totally heal her?” He asked.

At 84, my mother was healed of breast cancer. Our granddaughter, Brooklyn, was healed of “infant botulism,” which in laymen’s terms means instant polio, the failure of the body’s muscular system including the ability to breathe. Brooklyn was totally healed within a three day period, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. She was out of the iron lung and home, totally healed.

When we found out that my wife had cancer again, in August 2006, we turned to prayer. Over the next 18 months, our faith was tested many times. After she made the final decision that a life of daily doctor visits and/or hospital stays was not a fair exchange to experience eternal life with Jesus, she stood up from another dose of medicine and said, “I’m not doing this anymore.” Moving her to the doctor’s office, she repeated this to the doctor and then asked how long she had to live. The doctor told her she only had a few weeks. Over the next four weeks (28 days) she quietly witnessed her faith in Christ’s resurrection.

My last promise to my wife was that I would never do anything that would witness a denial in her faith in Christ’s resurrection. Today, I can see that our faith must be focused (based) on Christ’s resurrection. If we look at the results in terms of our present day needs, we become blinded to the gift we have through eternal life with God.

When you face a similar test of your faith, I pray that you will be comforted by the peace that Jesus is offering you in John 14:27. Use this peace to read John 17 again and accept it as a door to understanding how Christ sees your place in His plan for your life.