Good morning. We’ve all heard stories of men who had “foxhole” conversions. The man was on the front lines in battle. Bullets were flying and mortars were exploding all around him, and he feared that he would die. Suddenly, his partner was hit and killed right next to him. In his panic, he flashed back to the Sunday school upbringing from which he had strayed. He thought about his godly mother, who prays for him every day. He cried out, “God, get me out of here safely and I will follow You the rest of my life!” The Lord answered his prayer and brought him safely through the battle.
The real test of that man’s faith, however, is not how sincere he may have been in crying out to God in the heat of the battle. The real test of his faith is measured by what he does when the pressure is off. Will he forget God and go back to his old ways? Or will he go deeper and develop genuine faith in the person of Christ that is not just a response to his immediate need? Will he repent of his sins, trust in Christ as his Savior, and follow Him as Lord after his crisis is over?
I would suggest that this applies to everyone who has cried out to God in a crisis or an emergency. Maybe you or a loved one were facing a serious health problem. You cried out to God and promised that if He brought healing, you would follow Him. Maybe it was a financial crisis or the need for a job. The Lord doesn’t want us to seek Him merely for deliverance from a crisis, and then to put Him back on the shelf until we need Him in the next crisis. Rather, He wants us to go deeper in our faith and to trust and follow Him because of who He is, what He means to us for salvation and not just because of what He can do for us in a moment of trouble too severe for us to handle ourselves.
We read this in John 4:43-53 After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.
Jesus knows the difficulty he faces when He travels to the region He once called home. He says that it is difficult for a prophet to be honored in his hometown. The people that knew Him best were likely to be blinded by His humanity and find genuine faith difficult. The Galileans knew of what He had done in Jerusalem, now they wanted a show. Jesus isn’t interested in that. He wants to share the truth of the Kingdom of God. But in the midst of all of this we see a man with a crisis and how Jesus reacts with compassion.
There is a “royal official” among them with a crisis; his small son is dying of a fever. He comes to Jesus for help. Was he a person of faith? No, not yet. Did he have an open mind? Perhaps, but he is of the highest social rung in the area and asking for help from a commoner, even one with Jesus’ reputation, would have been difficult. But it was a crisis! His child was dying, and he didn’t have any other option. So, he came to Jesus. He begs Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Notice that the man addresses Jesus with respect, which would have been very unusual for him when addressing someone below his social standing. But when you have a crisis, such things don’t matter. Jesus doesn’t ask for details, He simply says “Go; your son will live.” The man goes away believing Jesus. That is an amazing statement, but his belief is made certain when he finds out that his child is healed and that the healing occurred exactly when Jesus pronounced him well. This “royal official” and all of his household become believers in Jesus.
We don’t know if their belief lasted for a day, a week, or a lifetime. I would love to believe it was the latter. Jesus had healed a child near death, but in doing so He also healed a number of people with spiritual needs they didn’t even recognize.
Do we need a crisis to turn to the Lord? I hope and pray that isn’t the case. His love for us is mighty and true and His desire is to help us through every moment, not only with those things so huge we know we can’t go it alone.
God bless your day as you turn to Him for help in every need.
Vern