Belief or Unbelief?

“Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matthew 13:58

The passage above comes from the story where Jesus visits His hometown. The whole story starts from verse 53 and ends in verse 58. I left home about 6 years ago. I graduated from college in 2008. I knew what I was going to do next and that was going to grad school at Andrews University (officially it’s called the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.) When I left for grad school I didn’t know that I would be working as a pastor here in this country. And each year I really enjoyed going back home to my parents because I missed home.

3 years ago Hyemi and I got married and we started a new home of our own. And yet Hyemi and I still do miss our homes in Korea. That is where we grew up. That is where our parents are. And so, even though our home is now here, I would love to visit our old home anytime! That was probably the case for Jesus. After over a year of ministry Jesus and the disciples came back home to visit and Jesus spent time in teaching at the synagogue. But Jesus was not welcome at home. Rather the hometown people were offended and so Jesus had to leave. Because of their ‘unbelief’ in Jesus, Jesus was not able to perform ‘mighty works’ in His own hometown.

That last line made me think a lot. We need to ‘believe’ in Jesus. When we do so Jesus can do mighty things for us in our lives. Recently our family had a special experience. It was an experience where we prayed to Jesus but we didn’t believe in it. Jesus had prepared us something better than we had asked for and yet we were looking elsewhere. Later we praised God for His ‘mighty works.’ If we let ‘unbelief’ dominate our thoughts, we are keeping Jesus away from doing His ‘mighty works.’ If you have not been praying, please pray and believe. If you have been praying, then believe in Jesus.