Photo by Tony Eight Media on Unsplash

The other day in my Bible reading, I was in Matthew 11—the story of when John the Baptist was in prison.

I imagine that John is struggling and trying to figure out what God is doing in his life and the world around him. He sought to do what God called him to do and ended up in prison for it.

He hears reports of all Jesus is doing, yet John is still in prison.

So, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

This is a question many of us ask at different points.

If you are a pastor, you see how God works in another church, city, or state and wonder, “Why there and not here?”

You see the life and marriage of someone else and see God’s hand and wonder, “Why them and not me?”

This is the first question of faith for many of us, why does God seem to be active there but not here?

And it isn’t that God is only active there, but that it is often more apparent to us when God is active in someone else’s world than being able to see His activity in our world.

Part of this struggle is learning to celebrate when God works somewhere you aren’t a part of. As pastors, we should be grateful that churches other than ours are growing, but that can be hard. 

One of my favorite small group practices is sharing evidence of God’s grace: going around the table and sharing where we’ve seen God at work in the past week. When I struggle to see God’s hand, hearing how God is at work in the life of others reminds me that God is at work. 

It also helps me look harder at my life and see what God is doing. 

Then Jesus says something in verse 6 that I’ve always found curious: Blessed is anyone who does not stumble because of me.

We will struggle with faith when God doesn’t do what we think He should or want Him to do. 

Many of us had a crisis in our faith when God didn’t answer a prayer, heal someone or ourselves, or change something. That is the moment when our trust becomes real.