Which is easier?

     Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 
     Matt 9:5 (NASB)

     Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, annointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has commited sins, they will be forgiven him.
     James 5:14,15 (NASB)

     Jesus did the hard thing in Matthew 9 to show that He had the authority to forgive sin. He had just told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. It is easy to say your sins are forgiven, because there is no immediate visual evidence. It is quite another thing to say get up and walk, because an impossible action is then expected. When the crippled man got up and walked, it proved to everyone present that Jesus indeed had authority to forgive sin.
     I think that for most of us it is easy to believe that if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful to forgive them. We have no problem accepting that by faith. Many of us have grown up in church hearing this truth all of our lives. Faith for healing is quite a different matter. It is easy to believe that God can heal, but when it comes to the crisis point it is hard to believe that God will actually heal. We may pray, or even be annointed and prayed for, as in James 5, all the while expecting nothing to really happen.
     Faith is not a lever that somehow budges God. We cannot drum up faith in the attempt to impress Him into action. Faith is not something that we use to get whatever we want from God. Faith is taking God at His word. It is hearing what He says in His word and believing Him. God does not and cannot lie. It is up to us to simply believe what He says.
     Although I have seen people healed, far too often nothing happens. I think this is a common thing, but it should not be so. We tend to explain it away with a variety of reasons and biblical interpretations, and as a result do much damage to the doctrine of divine healing. The word of God is clear on this subject. God is willing to heal. People were healed consistently throughout the bible, as they came to Him in faith.
     In Mark 9: 17-29 the disciples fail to cast a demon out of a boy. We can learn several things from this passage.  In Jesus' own words this was an unbelieving generation. In Matthew 13:58 we see that unbelief prevented Jesus from performing miracles. The people of that day were religious, but failed to take God seriously. They were too familiar with Jesus. He had grown up among them, where did His power come from? How can He claim to be the Messiah? They took offense at Him. Is it possible that we today can become so comfortable with our theology, and so familiar with the Jesus that we see in our churches, that we too become filled with unbelief?
     Jesus also told the disciples that prayer was necessary (Mark 9:39). Jesus gave us an example to follow. He often got up early and got away from everbody to spend long times in prayer. We tend to wait until a need arises and then spend time in prayer for that need. Instead we should be already spending time in prayer to God, just seeking Him. When a need arises, we would be prayed up and ready.
     The subject of miracles and healings is difficult. As I said we often see no miraculous results to our prayers. There are a variety of biblical reasons for the lack of healing, but I still think that we are not experiencing all that God intends for us to have in Christ. This can be a subject to pursue in future posts.