Faith and Trust in the Living God

In today's first reading, Isaiah 65: 17-21, the Lord says to us through the prophet: "Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be a  joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people."

What I believe comes to be! For instance, if I believe that I will fail, failure will be mine. On the contrary, if I believe that I shall succeed, I will succeed in some way, even if that success is how I handle failure!  Living through faith in God's power to "create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight," I will, then, experience God's power to bring good out of what I may have perceived as disaster.  We see this kind of faith at work in the royal official in today's Gospel, John 4: 43-54. The royal official asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his dying son.  At first it looked as if Jesus was dismissing him with a rebuke when he said: "Unless you  people see signs and wonders you will not believe." The royal official simply repeated his request and Jesus says to him: "You may go; your son will live" and at that moment his son began to recover.

Like the royal official,  if I live by faith,  I will not hesitate to bring my concerns to Jesus, knowing that He has the power to help me in my need, whatever that need might be. As I rely upon God to respond to my requests for help,  my thinking negatively will be changed into thinking positively. And like the royal official,  I will then experience how God delights in me and restores my faith in Him.

Lord, I pray for the faith to believe in what you create and are capable of creating.   Like the royal official, may I grow in my knowledge of who You really are: a compassionate, loving, faithful God, whose love is infinite and generously shared. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.