Have you ever read a story from the Bible and immediately thought that the story relates to our generation? The story about Jesus healing a demon-possessed boy relates exactly to our generation today and it is a story that I am going to share with you today.
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
Matthew 17:14-20: When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him." "You unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out." He replied, Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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."
This story correlates directly to how a lot of people are living their lives today. The father of the boy came to Jesus and knelt before him asking Jesus to heal him. When we have problems, we usually come to Jesus and pray about it. That is a great first thing to do. That is what we should do and there is nothing wrong with that. Where this story goes down hill is when the father tells Jesus that the disciples said they could not heal him. That is where are downfall is. We become a little impatient and think that if we don't get immediate results that God isn't working. When we seek God we need to be patient and understand that he is always as work. When Jesus says, "You unbelieving and perverse generation," you can tell that he is a little ticked off. Jesus is calling us out. If you don't know what perverse means, perverse is showing a deliberate or obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable. Jesus is directly calling us out for living our lives perversely. It's a little sad to me that to this day we are still living the same way that a lot people in biblical times were living, with little faith. I know that I just did a post of faith, but I really believe that faith is a topic that I really need to encourage you with. Jesus is so powerful. When he got done going on his little rant about us being perverse and unbelieving he tells the boy to come to Him and he rebukes him. A character trait that I love about Jesus is every time he performed a miracle like that, he did it in such a cool manor. Everything he did was for the Father, not for him. That is how we should live our daily lives. He never did anything to bring attention to him, everything he did was to bring attention to the Father so that people could believe and spend eternity in heaven. Another part of this story that stuck out to me is that the disciplines went up to Jesus in private and asked him why they couldn't drive the demon out of the boy. It amazes me that this happened because the disciples had faith in the past and have been right by Jesus' side for so many miracles, yet they had little faith. Is that not how we live our lives? God does amazing things for you time and time again, and when it takes a little longer sometimes or it doesn't seem like He is doing work, we have little faith. Time and time again God blesses us with so many things and time and time again we struggle to have faith. I encourage you to always have faith. Faith pleases God.
The ending is my favorite. Jesus tells his disciples, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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." I've never seen someone move a mountain before but have faith to move the mountains in your life, whatever that may be. Maybe the mountain in your life is you struggling to have faith at all times. Have faith and you can. "Nothing is impossible for you."
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