• When Jesus laid hands on the sick to heal them, Mark recorded that he found their lack of faith strange (Mark recorded their lack of faith).
• Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs, giving them the authority to cast out unclean spirits. Afterward, the disciples went out and proclaimed, “Repent!” to the people. They also anointed many sick people with oil and cast out demons through prayer.
• One of the miracles performed by Jesus was the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, resulting in twelve baskets of leftovers.
• The disciples were amazed when they saw Jesus walking on the sea. Mark explained that when Jesus performed this miracle, the disciples didn’t fully understand it because their hearts were hardened. Even though they had witnessed previous miracles when Jesus broke bread, they still doubted when faced with new miracles.

Meditation 1:

“If you can believe without doubting and pray, then what Jesus did, we can do too.” This statement can be found in various places in the Gospels where Jesus spoke. So, where does this unwavering faith come from?

• Let’s reflect on my past experiences. By remembering what God has done for me in the past (responses to prayers), I can pray in faith for things that will happen in the future. For example, a prayer of unwavering faith might be, “Since God responded even in difficult situations in the past, if this current situation is also within God’s will, it will come to pass.” This attitude in prayer is the result of accumulating many experiences of faith.
• Therefore, I always pray for my son Sam to have more experiences of faith (answered prayers, testimonies…). Those who have experienced God generally don’t easily waver in their faith. Such prayers help us move away from being fixated on the results of our prayers (escaping a faith roller coaster).
• When praying, recalling the grace God has shown us in the past and the stories we have shared with God is a crucial aspect of following God’s path. I am grateful that I can remember these experiences and stories with God right now.
• From now on, I am determined to recall and record the memories in my mind as much as possible. Blogging has become a great treasure to me. If I hadn’t started blogging, I probably wouldn’t even be recording this QT now. Animals leave behind leather when they die, but I want to leave behind a blog for my descendants. 😊

<Application>:

I recall one of the deeply impactful experiences from my past when the Lord worked in my life, and I write it down.

I remembered the experience when Sam first joined the university church’s worship team as an official member. Hanna’s family also came along at that time.

We have decided to attend the first praise and worship service led by Sam as a member of the university church praise team.

The university church is six hours away, so to attend the worship service, we had to leave early in the morning. However, we overslept, leading to a late departure. Due to this delay, my husband and I argued, and my angry husband drove above the speed limit. I had to hold my frustration while looking at my husband in that situation. I was able to hold it because I thought Satan was involved in this.

Fortunately, we arrived on time. As we saw Sam praising God, we offered glory to God and shed tears of thanksgiving. All the conflicts with my husband were resolved after the worship service of thanksgiving.

I have been praying for Sam to praise God since he was in first grade. Since Sam’s high school years, there has always been a recurring prayer topic when counseling with Sam about his college career. It involved the church, faithful seniors, faithful friends, the praise team, and the praise leader.

One day, in Philadelphia church, after a certain evangelist counseled with Sam and then called me to give advice, I recalled the words, “Steve’s faith is either all or nothing. His mother should pray a lot.” After that, I prayed more diligently for Sam.

There have been various difficulties along the way, but the result of continuous prayer for Sam for 12 years without doubting has been realized in Sam’s freshman year of college. God answered the prayer of hope that He gave me.

Since joining the praise team, Sam found it truly difficult to balance with his university studies. However, Sam persevered, relying on God, and successfully continued his service.