FAITH

                        A DEMONSTRATION OF DEVOTION

       Does this sound like you?  You have nothing to give God but
problems. All you have to offer Him is your hurt. You want to accept His
gift of grace, but you feel unworthy of His sacrifice.
      Maybe that has kept you from coming to God. Oh, you have taken a step
or two in His direction. But then you saw the other people who follow Him.
They seemed so clean, so neat, so trim and fit in their faith. So you
hesitated.
      If that description fits, read the story of the nameless woman in
Mark 5. She, considered unclean by her culture, demonstrated her devotion
to Jesus by touching the hem of the Savior's garment. And that slight
gesture moved Jesus to heal her. She was a shame-struck, penniless outcast
who clutched onto her hunch that He could and her hope that He would.
     Isn't that what faith is all about? A conviction that He can and that
He will.  Sounds similar to the definition of faith given by the Bible:
"Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe
that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him"
(Hebrews 11:6).
     Not too complicated, is it? Faith is the belief that God is real and
that God is good. Faith is not a mystical experience or a midnight vision
or a voice in the forest... it is a choice to believe that the One who made
it all hasn't left it all and that He still sends light into shadows and
responds to gestures of faith.
     Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. Faith is the
belief that God will do what is right. God is always near and always
available. Just waiting for your touch. So let Him know. Demonstrate your
devotion: Write a letter...ask forgiveness...confess...feed a hungry
person...pray...teach...go.
     Do something that reveals your faith. For faith with no effort is no
faith at all. God will respond. He has never rejected a genuine gesture of
faith. God honors radical, risking faith. When arks are built, lives are
saved. When soldiers march, Jericho tumble. When staffs are raised, seas
still open. When a lunch is shared, thousands are fed. And when a garment
is touched -- whether by the hand of an anemic woman in Galilee or by the
prayers of a beggar in Bangladesh -- Jesus stops. So make your choice,
announce your faith to God, and demonstrate your devotion.