Have Faith and Miracles Will Come

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I’m baaaaack and I am so excited to be here because this Gospel is awesome. Let’s get started!

Gospel Mark 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to Jesus,
“You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?'”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child’s father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.

Wow! Faith, have FAITH! A child brought back from death’s door … dead … wakes up, “Arise,” He says, “And oh, by the way, you might want to go give her something to eat, she’s probably a little hungry.” Ha, ha, I mean, c’mon—that’s crazy! And then the woman who has seen every doctor everywhere, still is bleeding, twelve plus years of this stuff, right? Touches the cloak of Jesus’s garment and is healed! This is what faith is all about.

Do you have faith? I have faith. I believe, Lord—help my unbelief. That is a part in the Bible, I believe—but jeez, some days I need some help believing and I need to ask for your grace and for your love and for trusting that you, Lord can do anything. Anything!

Why do you think when we’re at dire straits, especially with sickness when people think there’s no more medical stuff that can be done, like this woman who has seen every doctor we go to God? The people said to the synagogue leader, “Hey, you know what? Don’t worry. Don’t bring Him over here because she’s already dead.” And then He brings her to life. These are all lessons for us. Anything can be done with God. There have been so many miracles. 10,000 saints in the Catholic Church with miracles happening with every single one of them.

You … me, we can have that happen to us too, but we have to have faith. And the only way to really get faith is from God. Sounds kind of like this circular thing, right? Well, if it have to have faith I have to ask God, but how do I ask God if I don’t really have faith?

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago that mustard seed of faith? It doesn’t take much. I told you I had a half of a half of a mustard seed of faith and when I started going back to Mass, I was kind of like halfway in it. I wasn’t even really doing it for any real spiritual reason. But God took a hold of me—the Holy Spirit turned that car around and BOOM, here I am standing in front of you, telling you how amazing life is with God!

And it’s not like I wake up every day feeling faith-filled and full of trusts for the Lord. Every day I need to ask him, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I left my executive career, I left prestige, money—everything that this culture says makes you happy. And every day I don’t know what God has in store for me. Yes, I have plans, yes, I have tasks and things to do and I’m busy every day. But some days I don’t get any of them done because He wants me to be focusing on something else or maybe it’s not what He wants me to do that day. I rely on him daily. I ask Him to increase my faith and trust in him daily. I surrender to Him every day. And it is amazing when I see Him in action when I see Him put people in my way to help me. I see Him bring up this opportunity or point me in that direction or speak to me when I’m sitting in adoration asking Him, “Do you want me to do this? Am I heading in the right direction? Because you know the best things for me, not me. I have no clue. You’re the one that created me. You have big plans, so I would like you to help me figure out what those plans are.”

And it’s not like He comes down and sits right in front of me and says, “Okay, Kendra do A, B, C, D, and oh, when you’re done with that, finish this and do that.” It doesn’t work that way, but I do listen with my heart and my soul. I feel the Holy Spirit leading me and guiding me. I have a sense of peace of “Yes, this is what you want me to do. This is the direction that you want me to go in, not that direction.” Even though I think that’s the direction I should be going. But I only hear it in silence and in my relationship with Him.

So your challenge this week is to have faith, but ask him to give you more. “Lord, I believe help my unbelief.” Because when you have faith that God can do anything, your entire life is His because He knows the best things for you and sometimes they’re not going to be what you want and what you think is best for you. I have learned that the hard way.

So remember this week, whatever little faith you must ask Him for more, but spend that time with Him. You have to build a relationship with Him. It’s a love affair. You can’t love someone and not spend any time with Him.

And I’m going to keep repeating the two commandments that we are supposed to live as Christians. Your God—love your one and only God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength and love thy neighbor as thyself.

Two things we have to do which are not very easy. But we forget a lot about centering our life around God and that means spending time with Him, listening to him, reading the scriptures, having it speak to you, having Him speak to you. And you’ll feel it—once you get used to spending that time and listening and hearing and basically surrendering yourself to His will and saying, “Not my will Lord, but YOUR will be done. You just have to help me hear it!” Ask Him—He will give you signs and feelings and you’ll know the direction that you’re going.

I have tell you, it takes every single day to give yourself to Him again. Everyday. There are some days I wake up completely full of fear and anxiety because I’m thinking, “Okay, is my husband freaking out about this because, you know, I haven’t made any money in months and blah, blah, blah.” And I can’t live like that. That is not why I am sitting in front of this camera. I am sitting in front of this camera so that I can help enrich lives through faith and prayer—bring people back to the Church, deepen your relationship with God if you’re already there, understand what you’re getting in the Mass, and have all of the benefits that come with a relationship with God.

So remember, you only need a mustard seed of faith and He can grow one of the biggest plants. He just needs you to ask, ”Lord, I believe—help my unbelief” and try your hardest to keep Him in the center of your life. That’s the challenge for this week and it is a challenge because there are so many “things” to do.

I’m going to wrap up with one more thing.

In January of this year I was all about tasks. I had to get my book done. I had to get it edited, designed, published, marketed, and I’m still not even close to having the marketing done. Then I had to get a website done. I had to work on speaking topics—all of these tasks, uh, were killing me. And guess what? My number one commandment of keeping God centered in my life and going to Him and relying on Him and trusting Him … kind of fluttered away. I was watching Mass on TV on EWTN and I wasn’t receiving the Eucharist every day. My prayers in the morning were on my laptop, but a Facebook would come in or an email would come in or I would have all these distractions where I really wasn’t contemplating the word or listening to what He was trying to tell me. And my centered life with God completely dwindled.

He was pretty far down on my prioritization list. So all I’m saying is I know exactly what my life is like when I don’t have a relationship with God and when I do have a relationship with God. Meaning I’ve found my faith … but you know … I’m going through those peaks and valleys. I know when I’m at the peak and I have really decided I have to stay at the peak. That’s the only way that I’m going to do His will and the only way that I am going to continue down a path that He wants me on and have that peace and joy and love that I am so grateful He has graced me with and continue to deepen my reliance on Him.

It’s hard. It’s not easy. We’ve all gone through the peaks and valleys or you were like me five years ago who didn’t have any kind of relationship with Him and didn’t rely on Him at all. Lord, I believe help my unbelief and have faith. Trust that He knows what He’s doing. I mean, He did create you. He did give you all your unique talents. He does have your best interest in mind. So why not trust the one who loves you the most, has the most mercy, and increase your faith.

Ask Him to help increase your faith this week.

Thanks for the time. This has been an amazing Gospel and I hope that it hit you deep in your heart. So have a blessed and inspired week and I’ll catch you next time.