Throughout my years as a follower of Jesus, I’ve kept in touch with what the Lord’s up to in other parts of the world. Of particular interest has been the church in Africa, once referred to by white people as “the dark continent”, but now assuredly a place where the light of Christ is shining most brightly. The gospel continues to advance in many parts of Africa, with thrilling stories of the power of the Holy Spirit literally saving and transforming lives in Jesus.
As we shared these stories with our then young children, one of them once asked, “Dad, how come God seems to be doing amazing things in Africa, but not so amazing here?” And though I may have been tempted to respond that this is only a matter of reporting, or perspective, I had to agree with at least the observation on which this question was asked, if not the conclusion that God loves Africa more than the U.S. It does seem as if we continue to hear of miracles and revivals and regional transformations in so-called developing countries whereas in our so-called developed country the news is far less thrilling.
Perhaps today’s Scripture points to a cause. The whole matter of our faith working with God’s power is a challenge. Jesus said to His disciples, when they asked Him to increase their faith, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you(Luke 17:6). And so, many individuals have been told that, if they would only possess faith, their request from God would be granted. But then, when their request is not granted, they are also told that they didn’t have enough faith. And though James speaks of the doubter, …double-minded and unstable in every way [who] must not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:7), the sincere believer who gets a “no” from God isn’t necessarily responsible for that “no”.
Perhaps more to the point in the lack of demonstrated miracles and acts of power on the part of the Lord is the lack of faith of the collective, always the milieu for most of the settings in Scripture. In our culture, we tend to think of individuals and their role; in the Bible, it’s normally the community that’s in view. And, in view of Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth, the people as a whole took offense at Him, collectively (Matthew 13:57). And, as if in response, He did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief (emphasis mine, Matthew 13:58). It was the unbelief of the people as a whole which was part of why a sincere believer in Nazareth, earnestly seeking God, might have had a difficult time getting the request granted. It’s as if Jesus was indicating that, as important as individual needs are, in the long-term, it’s equally important that a community as a whole turn to God, such that the blessings can begin to flow.
And so, in our culture, though we are encouraged to ask, to seek, and to knock as individuals, we should also be asking, seeking, and knocking at God’s door that our churches, our communities, our nation would turn to God as a whole. We need to pray that we wouldn’t be offended by Him, that the milieu of our culture might be changed from doubt to faith, so that many deeds of power could be done by the Lord.
So let’s pray that we, collectively, would (re)place our trust in the Lord, so that not just a few will be healed, delivered, and saved, but that many will.
