Is it possible that sometimes things don't happen because of our faith or a lack thereof?

Now the moment that question is even suggested, people tend to react in one of two ways.

On one side, you have the prosperity gospel crowd that says, oh, if you just believe hard enough, if you speak the right

words and declare it in the name of Jesus, then you can basically guarantee any outcome.

So yes, it is your fault if it doesn't come to pass, right?

And then on the other side, you have a reaction that almost goes in the complete opposite

direction where people become so afraid of sounding like what I just described,

that they instead start acting like faith doesn't matter at all and everything is just

God's will or not kind of thing, which I understand the posture of, but the thing is, my friends,

when you read the Gospels, it's pretty hard to ignore the fact

that Jesus actually does talk about faith consistently and constantly.

Like, over and over again, we see him say these things like your faith has healed you according to your

faith if you believe.

And so what do we do with that then?

Because yes, clearly our faith matters.

If it didn't, Jesus wouldn't emphasize it the way he does.

But see, what I think the problem is, is that maybe most of us as believers don't actually understand what

biblical faith is.

You know, some of us treat it like it's a force that controls God.

Others treat it like a passive belief that requires nothing.

And neither one of those look like the faith

that we see in scripture because biblical faith is something far more profound than either of

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