Faith Appropriates
“And He said to her, daughter your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5:34, NKJV).
One of the dictionary meanings of the word appropriate is to take for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission. And some of the synonyms of appropriate is to seize, commandeer, arrogate, take over, lay claim to and acquire. The story surrounding the scripture above is that of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years and could not get a cure. When she heard that Jesus was passing, she said to herself that if I touch His garment, I will be well. Though there was a crowd thronging Jesus, she managed to reach Him and touched Him. Immediately she was healed and simultaneously Jesus felt some anointing leaving Him. She is a typical case of faith appropriation. She took her healing by simply believing. She did not ask for special prayers nor Jesus’ permission before she received her miracle. Below are some points to consider:
Faith appropriates what Grace has made available: GRACE is acronym for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. The glorious riches available for the Christian was made available by Christ through His finished work on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus paid fully for the redemption of mankind. He paid the debt of sin and the ultimate penalty of sin which is death. This is the basis of the New Testament and the framework by which we receive God’s best. Real faith acknowledges what Jesus has done and rests entirely in it.
Faith appropriates by forgetting the past: The Israelites that God delivered from Egypt never had a closure on Egypt. Though they left physically, but mentally and emotionally, they were still in Egypt. They kept on remembering the cucumbers and garlics and the relative serenity Egypt offered them. They preferred to remain permanently in Egypt as slaves to the temporary discomfort of the wilderness on their way to the Promised land. They complained and murmured incessantly to Moses and God about taking them out of Egypt. Because of their attitude and not letting go of Egypt they perished in the wilderness. Dwelling in the past will not allow us to have faith in the present and hope for the future. The past, if not carefully dealt with, will rob us of the future.
Faith appropriates by unbroken focus: “Now when the time was almost come for Jesus to be received up (to heaven), He steadfastly and determinedly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Jesus on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified needed to pass through Samaria but the Samaritans refused Him passage. Because He was resolute and focused on Jerusalem, He found another way. The woman in our introductory verse was resolute about getting well. A magnifying glass focused on a combustible object under the rays of the sun will invariably spark a fire and cause the object to be burnt. Faith and focus are Siamese twins. For faith to appropriate the grace of God, focus must be in place.
Faith appropriates by obedience: Christians are intended by God to be highfliers. A pilot flies an aircraft in very high altitudes simply by obeying a code of instructions. Failure to comply totally to instruction means disaster and destruction. Appropriating God’s best is always at the other side of obedience. Jesus told the paralytic man “take up your bed and walk” (Mark 2:11). He told the man who was sick for 38 years after healing him, to go and sin no more (John 5: 14). Faith and obedience (corresponding action) work together. Faith is not stand-alone. Both general and specific instructions from God are critical for faith to harvest and sustain Heaven’s blessings.
Faith Appropriates by Thanksgiving: The first thing Jesus did when He was about to raise Lazarus was to give thanks (John 11: 41). He taught His disciples in the Lord’s prayer to first praise and worship God. He was modelling Heaven’s protocol for us. For a transaction to be complete there must be offer and acceptance. God has offered us His best through Jesus Christ; the way to receive His innumerable blessings is through incessant and effusive thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the receiving hand of faith.
CONCLUSION: May your faith and confidence in God soar in these uncertain times in Jesus’ name. Have a blessed month.