Faith, a great gift from above

"No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven." (Jn 3;27)

Faith is a jump into deep darkness, someone defined FAITH in this way. Whether you jump or not, your Faith is a pure gift from God. If it was given to you from above, you would not have believed who Jesus is. You might have come to believe in the Lord either by chance or when you witnessed a miracle. In whatsoever way, remember that it is God who created those chances; as that of SAUL had on his way to Damascus, for you to come to FAITH.

Thinking about faith, I normally get no idea at all. Basically I do say that I have deep faith in the Lord, but I really doubt whether I have it. Once I heard during a Sunday sermon a priest saying the story of an old woman who carried an umbrella in hot Summer.

The story is like this. It was too hot that the people were falling down sun-stroked. A good percentage of the animals have already fallen dead and the plants and trees were dried up. The situation was so severe that there was no food. At this time, the people gathered around a temple to pray as per a priest's advise. The prayer gathering was to be done for ten days continually and the priest told that on the tenth day the rain will come.

The days went on but there was no signs of rain. Ninth day also passed and reached the tenth day. Everyone was moving to the temple to pray and none of them had taken an umbrella but an old lady. When others saw her carrying an umbrella, they started pulling her off and teasing. They laughed at her. She said with FAITH that it is the tenth day and when she returns home there will be rain. While everyone lacked faith, she had strong faith. And it rained that evening and drenched all others wet but not the old woman.

This story might be a familiar one to you. And this was said by the priest to show the power of faith. But here my intention is not to show the power of faith but to say whether it is gained or given. From the Bible we have many examples. None of them state that those prophets and kings, apostles and other disciples had gained this gift by their hard work. On the other end, each of them proclaim that this is purely gifted to them from above.

Let us see some examples. Mother Mary, Apostles and many women followers including Mary Magdalene are pictured as people of great faith. Are they "happened to be followers?" No for sure. The disciples believed in Jesus when they were called by the Lord. The 'call of Jesus' itself is from above.

There are many others like The woman of Samaria, Nathanael, the blind beggar of Jericho, and so on. They believed in Jesus when they came in contact with Jesus. Remember Nathanael! What great things has Jesus done for him? Nothing, but he said that 'he saw him standing under the fig tree.' This small incident was sufficient enough for Nathanael to believe in Jesus.

On the other end, we also see many of the Pharisees and Sadduccees, Jews disbelieving in Jesus despite the wonders they witnessed. They could not BELIEVE in Jesus only because they were not called by the LORD. For those who think on human standards, it is never possible to find out what REAL FAITH is. But if you stand with him asking for this great gift, you will understand it better.

Lord please increase my faith so that I may be able to spread the light of faith to the whole world.