You Are My One ThingSample

My Offering

You’ve drawn me out of unbelief

Far from the crowds, just You and me

And here You give me healing

In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly commends individuals for their great faith. What is faith? Scripture says, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is a continuous surrendering of total confidence. We place our trust in God alone—in His nature, character, and faithfulness.

Mark 7:31–37 tells the story of Jesus healing a deaf man with a speech impediment. The passage says this man was brought to Jesus and people begged Jesus to lay His hands on him to heal him (v. 32). Interestingly, Jesus then “led him away from the crowd so they could be alone” (v. 33). Jesus healed this man in an up-close and personal way, away from the crowd. Some scholars suggest that one reason Jesus led this man away from the crowd was to get him away from others’ unbelief. This story, like many others in the Gospels, reveals Jesus’ response to faith. First, He draws us out of unbelief, away from the crowds, and then He meets us in a personal way.

When it comes down to just you and Jesus, where is your faith? In Whom is your faith? The crowd brought the man to Jesus, but only the man could trust Jesus to heal him.

Where, in our own lives, do we need Jesus to draw us out of our own and others’ unbelief to receive, by faith, all that He has for us? Where has our faith grown stale and weary? Where do we need Jesus to author faith in our life (Hebrews 12:2)?

Do you need fresh faith today? A practical way to stir up faith within ourselves is to remember God’s faithfulness to us. Throughout Scripture, we are exhorted to remember who God is and what He has done. The people of Israel were urged to reflect on all that God had said, done, and promised. We remember God’s faithfulness to us by meditating on His Word, sharing our testimony, thinking about Christ’s character and all-sufficient work, and hearing the testimony of other believers. Those are just a few of the countless ways we can remember God’s faithfulness! In doing this, our faith is stirred, and we can offer ourselves and our worship anew.