You couldn’t walk. Why not? What was wrong with you?
     You had two legs and two feet but every time you tried to stand up you fell over. Someone kept encouraging you and finally you did walk!
     Jesus was a perfect teacher and He knew everything that men and women need to know. For three years He kept encouraging His disciples to believe and trust God for everything. He demonstrated the many ways that God could supply – anything that was needed.  Eventually they could work miracles but when Jesus was arrested their faith fell apart. Later they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they healed the sick, and began their mission of getting the Good News to all the world.
     How do you and I grow in faith until we too are able to do whatever God has called us to do?
     Jesus referred to us as children. We can start learning to have more faith in the same way a child learns to walk. Families reach out to their children and urge them to take one step toward them. We too can listen to those who have said through so many years, “You can learn to believe God.”
     We can study the amazing reports of Christ’s disciples. They learned to believe and practice what Jesus had told them. We can also read the reports of many Christians who have learned to believe what Jesus taught.
     Jesus told the disciples that they could move a mountain by their faith, but He didn’t ask them to do that! He wanted them to do what they could do and to grow in faith. He taught them about tiny seeds that are planted and produce fruit and about sheep that follow their shepherd.
     When we plant a seed in the ground, the seed grows and accomplishes its purpose. You and I can learn to believe what we can believe, no matter how small our faith may be, and we can learn to help our faith to grow.  If we can’t do a “big miracle” Satan will tell us that we are not a miracle worker so we might as well forget trying. If we then stop trying, we will never have the joy of planting a seed of faith and seeing it grow. If your life is fairly stable now, realize that some day you may urgently need greater faith!

 by Merlin Carothers

     If you are sick and pray for God to heal you, don’t wait for a mighty change to take place in your body before you believe that God is healing you. Believe as much as you can. Stretch your faith to believe. Believe you can take a deeper breath, bend your back a little more, reach your arm higher. Or, believe you can do your job better, improve your business, be a happier person, a better parent or feel less stressed. Rejoice when you can think of nothing to rejoice about, or do something small to help someone who needs help.
     What will happen? You will grow in faith. When you seem to be failing, remember that Jesus said you could do whatever you believed you could do. If you can?  said Jesus. Everything is possible for him who believes (Mark 9:23 NIV). Your goal may take a day, a year or most of your life to reach. But in God’s eyes you will have been trying. He will measure your patient persistence, not your mighty works.
     God gives us many kinds of special abilities, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service to God, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are many ways in which God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work in and through all of us who are his (1 Cor. 12:4-6 TLB).
     I have seen my own faith grow and I promise you that God watches even the little steps that we take.
     Parents would not expect their child to run a marathon race the first year of their life. God doesn’t expect us to quickly accomplish tasks that we have never been able to do! He only asks us to do what we can in order to grow in faith. He too is holding out His arms and saying, You can do it! Don’t ever feel that your faith is too weak to accomplish anything. God knows how hard you are trying. He knows exactly what is in your heart and what He wants most is for you to grow in understanding of how much He loves you.
He will catch you before you fall!

by Mary Carothers

presence of God who dwelled above the mercy seat. It also protected him from being seen by the awesome and holy God. The Bible tells us that God cannot look on sin, and the high priest was just as human and sinful as the rest of us. That’s why we all so desperately need the Savior, Jesus, who provided eternal atonement for our sins.
     Between the holy place in the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies was a curtain. A very thick and heavy curtain, which was the last separation between a holy God and His unholy people.
     To show that God the Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross He tore that curtain in two – from top to bottom (see Luke 23:45).
     When Jesus died on the cross He was the last and final sacrifice, for all time. Jesus took the sins of the world – the sins of all mankind – and suffered separation from the Father in our place. Because of all that Jesus has done for us, we can come fearlessly, right into God’s presence  (see Eph. 3:12). No longer is there a great separation between God and us. Now we are priests to the Lord. In fact, we are a royal priesthood (see I Peter 2:9). Way back in Exodus 19, God had told Moses that He wanted the Israelites to be a kingdom of priests. But they didn’t want to be close to God. They were too afraid of Him. They said “No, you talk to God and tell us what He says.” It’s   exciting to read in Revelation 5 where God tells us that we will one day be an everlasting kingdom of priests - to worship and serve Him. I can hardly wait!