He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief, and He went about among the villages, teaching.
Mark 6:5-6

These words astonish me. Jesus, in His hometown of Nazareth, found Himself unable to do any “mighty work” because of the atmosphere of unbelief He found there. It appears that we limit God’s working in our lives when we refuse to trust Him!

But then it adds, “…except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”

Wait, what?

In our day, we would say that Jesus healing a few sick people in answer to our prayers is a mighty work! We are astonished when our prayers are answered and in fact we start trying to second-guess what happened. We reason that it must not have been an answer to prayer; it had to be a coincidence, or a misdiagnosis, or “the medicine suddenly kicked in and started working.”

Our lack of faith puts us in the same category as the people of Nazareth. We effectively limit God’s ability to do mighty things among us by our lack of faith. He would live to do so much more than what we let Him do.

But I notice that instead of scolding them for their lack of faith He took the time to teach them. That makes sense to me; He has had to spend years teaching me to trust Him as much as I do today, and I still have a long way to go.

How sad! We miss so much that God would love to do in, with, and for us in this life, because we just don’t trust Him to keep His Word. But He takes us by the hand, and baby step by baby step He teaches us to trust Him.

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!
Fill my heart and mind with Your Word instead of all the junk I’ve been collecting there, and turn on the lights of a true, living faith. I need You to do some mighty work in my life. Amen.

Pastor Dan Giles