Where Is Your Faith?
We all know the story of Jesus calming the storm. It’s an incredible miracle that proves just how powerful God is. Not only does He have power over demons, sickness, disease, and jugs of wine, He has power over the forces of nature! But as we look closer at the story, what really sticks out is how the disciples responded as they thought they were going to drown.
As the story goes, Jesus told His gang that they were all going to cross the sea to the other side. While Jesus was taking a well-earned snooze from preaching and healing, a massive storm rolled in threatening to capsize the boat. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been out to sea in a small boat when the weather changes but it’s intimidating. Growing up in Florida I spent many of my younger days offshore fishing out in a boat miles from shore. In the summer months in FL you can count on a storm coming through every afternoon. Normally, it’s 30 minutes of light rain. No big deal. But some days the light rain becomes a downpour with wind and lightning included. As the wind picks up, so do the waves. Soaked and cold from the rain, waves tossing you all about, sending walls of water over the side of the boat, lightning flashing every minute or so you quickly realize that your head is the tallest object around for miles and the most likely place for the next bolt to strike. Jesus must have been VERY tired to sleep through it all! But when the disciples wake up Jesus, He doesn’t jump up and say “Oh my gosh, why didn’t you wake me up sooner? We could have died!” Nope. He calms the storm and asks them “Where is your faith?”
Faith is not one of those things that you have more or less of. You have it in its full abundance 24/7. You always have faith! But where you put that faith is what matters. When the disciples woke Jesus up He sensed their faith but He knew that they hadn’t placed it in Him. They had more faith in the storm than in God. They were certain that the storm was going to kill them. They were afraid that Jesus couldn’t save them. They doubted God’s ability to control the storm. But isn’t that what we all do? We all have doubts. We all have fear, anxiety, and worries. But why? If you knew that God was in control, that He loves you, and is always doing what is best for you, where is the room for fear and worry? Where is your faith?
When Satan decided He was going to try to separate humanity from God, he didn’t come in with a pitchfork and pointed tail trying to scare Adam and Eve. Evil of that type is too obvious and easy to run from. No, what he did was plant a seed of doubt. He made Adam and Eve question whether God was really as good as He says He is. Satan made them think that they had to take care of themselves because God couldn’t be trusted. He must be hiding and keeping things from us. He doesn’t have our best in mind. He won’t see us through the hardship. He can’t calm the storm, save our marriage, or help us find a way out of financial hardship. He can’t heal our pain and disease. Thus humanity has set out to do it on our own. If God won’t do it for us, then we must make our own way, solve our own problems.
The number one place that I see a lack of faith in God is when it comes to our health, or more importantly, our lack of it. When sickness, pain, and disease roll in, panic strikes deep in our hearts. Doubts boil up and overflow. Anxiety and worry become our only focus. For proof, look no further than how the world reacted in 2020. Where is your faith?
Many years ago, Dr. Lauren and I were invited to a church service. As it turns out, it was a night of healing. The pastor gave a quick sermon and then invited anyone who was ailing to come forward. I watched as dozens of people went forward begging God for a healing miracle. My heart was broken as we left that service because I knew that those people were going to go home and take the same drugs they had always been taking. They were going to eat the same food and live the same lives. If given the choice to leave that service with either their drugs or their bible, I wonder how many would choose the Word of God over their doctor’s prescription. Where were they putting their faith while begging for a miracle? Now please don’t get me wrong, emergency medicine can be a Godsend but you will NEVER find health or healing in a pill bottle or a vaccine!
God breathed life into dirt and created man. That was a miracle! But He didn’t just set it and forget it. The miracle of life still flows through you right now at this very moment. In chiropractic we have a saying, “the power that made the body, heals the body.” God never said, “I’m going to create mankind but they have to figure out the rest.” That is a lie of Satan. We have been fooled into believing that we must figure it out on our own. Science is the only way to combat germs. Man-made medicine is the only cure for disease. That’s not true. God is still good. He is still the provider of all things including life and healing. He even gave us everything we need to live a healthy life. He made the food for us to eat in order to be healthy. He created the land and water full of life giving nutrients. He created clean air to breathe. But when we think we can and must do it all on our own, we end up destroying the land and water, we dirty up the air, and create man-made food devoid of nutrients. And when we create all of these man-made problems our human logic is to create man-made solutions for them! We make poisonous drugs to combat the poisonous food! Is it any wonder that we fall short? Man-made problems can only be solved with God-made solutions. It’s time to get back to our roots. It’s time to realize where life and health come from and to live in alignment with how we were created. It’s time to put our faith back into God.
“Have you more faith in a spoonful of medicine than in the power that animates the living world”
-BJ Palmer
In Health and Faith,
Dr. Marc
