July 19
The Continual Burnt Offering" W hen Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”"
It has pleased God to honor our faith because faith is that which honors Him. Faith takes Him at His word and counts the things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17). But it is not faith that does the work. It is but the means which God uses to unloose His unlimited power. Faith is the hand which lays hold of omnipotence. As man on earth, our Lord was the pattern man of faith and He taught faith to others. He chose, in this scene of His humiliation, to live in daily dependence upon the living Father (John 6:57). Thus the works of power He wrought were those which the Father gave Him to do (John 14:10). In rebuking disease and death, and in saving from sin those who sought His grace, He was presenting the heart of God toward a needy world. His concern for the life and health of mankind was but the expressed desire of God the Father, that all men who believe in Him might be at last delivered from the effects of sin. It is not always His will to grant perfect health now, but faith can firmly trust Him in every circumstance.
More lonely grows the journey as it nears the end,
Yet with me walks the one Unchanging Friend.
Though all should leave, yet He will still abide
Till death, and up through death will safely guide;
And well I know, He ne’er will loose His hold
Till He has led me safe within His fold,
Where loved ones long in glory, watch and wait,
And lengthening shadows lift at Heaven’s Gate.
—M. E. Logie-Pirie