Sunday, September 25, 2022

Circumstantial Faith May Fail but Jesus Won't

 


Dear Prayer Warriors,

 

Many people believe that if there is a God, He has to be able to do anything He wants. So, when we prayed fervently with fasting for deliverance, healing, and resurrection many onlookers were interested, “is their God who they call “Father” going to do it?” Surely if He were to ever heal someone Simon would be a great candidate, especially because he loved Jesus.

 

 In truth, it pleased God that there was a remarkable amount of people watching our circumstances. Medical teams from three hospitals, two helicopters, and an ambulance were eye-witnesses watching. With experts like that, man, God could really increase His medical missionaries and do great good everywhere. Couldn’t a spiritual revival start at a hospital? I confess, as we persisted in praying for life for Simon, given his prognosis, I daydreamed about souls that would be won for Christ all because of Simon’s miraculous healing. I prayed that not just Simon but that every kid in a hospital bed at Children’s Hospital Colorado would be healed and the place emptied! And all the doctors leave Colorado to join Mercy Ships. It was my faith that drove me to think like that, my belief. The circumstances didn’t play out the way I wanted. The way we hoped and prayed.

 

However, a few prayer emails ago I shared how circumstances on November 10th 2006 played out far greater than the way I hoped and prayed. That was the day I reconsidered who Jesus was and what He did according to the Bible. From that point on, I have experienced a radical healing and transformation. I thank the Lord for “God moments” or circumstances that cut me to the core and lead me to depend on the cross of Christ.

 

In growing (and by paying attention at church), I found that faith isn’t lived out by on experience after another. Having only circumstantial faith would require going from crisis to crisis and they would all need to end just the way I want it in order for me to keep believing. If my faith was purely circumstantial, what happened to my son would have heaped blame on God, and likely severed my relationship with Him. Not getting what I hoped and prayed for just confirms that I am not God, nor is God my genie.

 

Some people look at our circumstances and assess it; these people wonder how God could allow Simon's death to happen. The Currat’s already have Anna. Wasn’t she the one who was supposed to die first? How can God be in control, how can there be a God that allows this? Why?

 

Deliverance from hardship is not God’s priority, magnification of Himself is. Much like I learned a few years back that God is more interested in saving souls and reconciling Himself to mankind than He is in healing Anna fully. He can do both, but His plan for salvation comes first. What’s mysterious is that Jesus asks His children to lead the charge in His most paramount purpose. That is hard to accept given His omnipotence. In my painfully small understanding, it makes perfect sense that God ought to do a twofer by healing Anna and letting many people see her healed to woo people to Himself. There are several healings Jesus did in the Bible that happened for the glory of God and people believed Jesus because they saw. Do it again God! I still pray for full healing, because God asks us to persist in asking for the things that are according to His will.

 

Since circumstantial faith could leave me to falling away. It’s important that you know that my faith is in the Person of Jesus. My faith may be played out in circumstances and experiences in order to glorify my heavenly Equipper and Supplier. I have a great confession of dependance. I have a small faith that, by God’s grace, remains continuously to be fixed on Jesus and in the good soil of His Word. Jesus is the only God I know of that wants and asks to meet with me every day. Only Jesus claims 100% total empathy in my trials. He is Emmanuel, which means God with me. Then on top of it all, He decides to be my mediator (priest) between the Father and me. In His humanity He knows exactly how I feel, how each of us feels, He sees us, that is His unique qualification!

 

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16

 

 

Try Him as your Shepherd in your “time of need” if you haven’t. Please keep reading these and praying for us, be our witness for the long haul. I know that the answers to our prayers, and His equipping of our family will give greater glory to God. The Lord is good and will be glorified in a way that supersedes the miraculous healing of Simon and Anna in His timeline -not mine. He will heal Anna, that great day is coming.    

 

Praise God for:

-continuous, steadfast availability of Jesus to be our mediator no matter the circumstance.

-the power of the Holy Spirit to fill us in monotonous days with His Word and grace.

-Anna’s adult teeth coming in unimpeded.

-Simon Emmanuel Currat’s life and death and afterlife with Jesus

-Using His children to share the good news of forgiveness and peace with God

 

Please Pray for:

-Anna’s surgery to remove her two hip brackets, scheduled for this coming Friday. Pray for pain management, great skill and care from the Surgeon. Pray that her left leg would no longer be turned inward, for a quick recovery. Also pray against infection

-Below is picture of Anna's bracket, two of those will be removed lord willing. 



- Pray for a Tuesday night babysitter. We have people that watch our kids as needs arrive like surgery, praise God for that. But I am looking to date my bride regularly, I haven't been steady in going steady. I don’t want to count on those same people to watch regularly because we might lose them for the bigger chunks. We are glad to pay as it would bless that person. it’s a good gig with some sweet kids, in a cluttered house.

-continued fruit in our grieving and turning to Jesus.

 

Sincerely,

 

Nic for the Currat’s

 


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