This is a follow-up piece to this week’s work on… theHeartSeekerBlog.wordpress.com…
February 22
In chapter 4 of his gospel, John records a powerful account (vs. 46-54).
Summarizing… a man (identified only as a “royal official” in Capernaum) has a sick son who ebbs near death. In desperation, the official hears about Jesus (a man who can do miracles) and makes the 20-mile journey to Cana… to beg Jesus to come and heal his dying son. Upon finding Jesus, and making his plea, Jesus sends him back home – offering only the encouraging words: “Go, your son will live.” The official takes Jesus at His word, and returns home.
Along the way back, he meets his servants… running to greet him with the wonderful news that his son is recovering – and is no longer in mortal danger.
The account ends with the stunning realization that the son began to get better at exactly the time that Jesus spoke the words to the official (4:52). John concludes with telling his readers the other wonderful news about the official… “and he himself believed (in Jesus) and all his household.” (v. 53)
I offer a couple of lessons for us to learn through this miraculous account.
1) If we seek God in earnest… we will find Him. The official in this story knew only that Jesus was seen in the vicinity of Cana. He did not know exactly where… or if he was still there. But he had only one hope… the God of Heaven who was doing mighty works through this Man – and he would not return until he had exhausted every possibility of finding Him.
Sometimes, we all have to ask ourselves about our passion for God. To what lengths would we go to gain His touch in our lives. God is always there. He is always available to any of us. But He seems to desire that we amp up our desire for Him before we are able to encounter Him in the fullness of His goodness. Scripture is abundant with admonitions to seek after God – but we can forget the important caveat… we need to seek with ALL our hearts.
Anything less than engaging our whole hearts only reveals that we feel that God is merely supplemental to our lives. The royal official had no other hope… find God or else. True faith is relentless in pursuing the Object of our hope.
2) God answers us in His way, on His terms. The royal official went to find Jesus and compel Him to come and heal his son. But Jesus refused to go with Him. Instead, He offered the hopeless man only a few brief words. But they were words spoken by the One Who spoke all things into existence (Col. 1:16). Words of infinite and unrelenting power.
The official did not argue or complain about Jesus’ method (though it certainly did not meet his expectations). Instead, he took Jesus at His word – and returned in the faith that Jesus’ words (spoken from twenty miles away) were enough.
It is often easy for us to convince ourselves that we know what God needs to do for us. Our prayers can often reflect our will… and the way we want for God to work in our lives. But true prayer seeks only the will of God – and the Heart behind that will. And humbly accepts God at His word.
There are many other lessons we could learn – but the main lesson is that Jesus is the answer to all of life – not just to our problems.
The same Jesus Who created all things, and died for us, seeks to invest His Life into us.
IF we will only seek Him with a true expression of our whole-hearted faith.
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