Learn to swim before you're drowning

You might be thinking, "What a strange headline!" But let me explain.
Your best friend has told you to learn to swim for a long time. He has tried to convince you that knowing how to swim can actually keep you from drowning, should a situation arise when you're out in a boat. But you refuse. "It's too much hassle, I'm almost never in a boat and I'll wear a life vest in case I'm on the lake."
Sounds ok? No? Why not? "Because it's stupid not wanting to learn to swim!"
Well, maybe the guy who refuses to learn to swim is just like so many people who don't want to learn to live by faith until they need it. When the doctor's report says that you've got 90 days to live, then you'd wish you'd "learnt to swim" earlier. When your spouse leaves you after 15 years of marriage, then you'd probably wish you'd "knew how to swim".
I'm talking about faith. When life is pleasant and you don't encounter the big challenges, you don't need much faith to survive. Just being saved and going to church on occational Sundays is ok. Your life is fine, and you're going to heaven!
However, if - or I should say when - some disaster strikes, that's when you need your faith. And you don't build your faith after disaster has struck, you build your faith before you need to use it. Exactly like knowing how to swim. You don't need to know how to swim when you're not in the water, but you certainly need to know the art of swimming when you're in the water and there's no-one around to help you.
Jesus referred to peoples' faith on several occasions. Actually, He said that it was the peoples' faith that healed them! Isn't that amazing? It wasn't HIS faith that healed people, it was THEIR faith that performed the miracle. Like in Matthew 9:22 and Luke 18:42, "Jesus turned and saw her. 'Take heart, daughter,' he said, 'your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment." And "Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." (There are many more examples of the same in the Bible, I just quote two).
When do you believe these people got their faith? I believe they had heard about Jesus and decided to believe that He was the Son of God and that there was power in Him to heal. And they acted according to their faith.
They had "learnt to swim before they were drowning", and when the situation arose when they needed to use their faith, it was right there.
Is your life fine today? No big situations that you need your faith to resolve? Fine! But this is the time to build your faith. Because sooner or later you'll need it!