"John the Baptist was in prison, but he heard about what the Christ was doing. So John sent some of his followers to Jesus. They asked him, "Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?"Jesus answered them, "Go tell John what you hear and see: The blind can see, the crippled can walk, and people with skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed." (Matthew 11:2-6)
"If you throw us into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from the furnace. He will save us from your power, O king. But even if God does not save us, we want you, O king, to know this: We will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)
What do you do when you are in a difficult place, like John was? You do all the right things- you pray, you fast, you keep close watch on your life, you seek the guidance of God and people and weeks later nothing seems to have changed?
What do you do when nagging thoughts keep popping into your mind "Maybe God didn't listen to you. Maybe He's upset with you. I mean He says where two or three gather in His Name, He is there. That if you ask anything in His Name it will be given to you. He either doesn't listen to you because of something you've done, or He's not even real and you're deceiving yourself."
What do you do when Doubt takes you to court for lack of evidence?
Perhaps John was sitting there in Herod's prison thinking "If He is the Messiah, He will get me out of here. I've done everything I had to do. I prepared the way for Him. He will get me out of here." But time passed and there was no sign of Jesus. So perhaps thoughts would come "Where is He? Surely He knows what's happening to me, doesn't He? Or maybe He doesn't. Maybe He's not the Messiah. I'll send someone to check."
So he sends some of his followers to Jesus. John was Jesus's cousin, he was there when the voice was heard from heaven at Jesus's baptism "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)
I am surprised Jesus didn't say "Go back to John and tell him. I beg your pardon, John, but where were you on that day? How many times have you seen and heard those things whilst baptising people?" But Jesus doesn't say that. Instead he gives John a long list of the signs and miracles that were happening and then he tells him: "The person who doesn't lose faith because of Me, is blessed." Then Jesus carries on saying to those who witnessed the discussion, that of all those who lived John is the greatest, but that even the least important person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. For a long time that remark puzzled me. Why? I mean John literally only lived for God. He gave all his live away to God?
But then I saw something similar at apostle Paul. An almost obsession to make it (Philippians 3:13-14). Why? Because he saw things. He saw miracles, he heard the Lord speaking directly to him, he saw the things to come. When you witness things like those, that increases your responsibility before God. We all crave to see signs and miracles, but what good are miracles if they don't change you forever. If afterwards you end up somewhere asking yourself if all this is real, those signs and miracles were nothing else but displays of power. Jesus perform the most miracles in Korazim, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Still He ends up saying "I did many miracles in you. If those same miracles had happened in Tyre and Sidon, then the people there would have changed their lives a long time ago. "(Matthew 11:21)
Supernatural deliverance doesn't always achieve the same results as faithful endurance. It's harsh and it's painful but I've seen it in my life and in the life of others around me to be true. God can do the same miracles He did back then, but what's the use if a few months later we end up questioning again?
What I'm learning these days (I don't enjoy this lesson by the way), is that no matter how much I hate endurance, no matter how desperately I want my King to come on a white horse and save me, like John did, this endurance gave birth to something in me. A sort of resolution. It almost pushed me in a corner where I had to choose like Sadrac, Mesac and Abed-Nego (Daniel 3)- if He doesn't come at all will I bow my knee? Will I accept those thoughts as being truth? Will I exchange all I know about God, all that I lived with Him these years just because I've done everything He said and "things don't happen"? And what do I mean by "things don't happen"?
When John asked, Jesus gave him a list as long as his arm of things that were happening, it just wasn't what John wanted to happen...
What do I do when Doubt takes me to court for lack of evidence? I tell it:
"He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me?" (Isaiah 50:8-9)
Why? Because I choose to remember that blessed is he who doesn't lose faith because of the way God works.
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