MAY 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”
(Matthew 14:31)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, Lord thank You for Your Mercy and Grace
that regardless
of our circumstances You Lord are Faithful
and True to Your Holy Character.
Lord I pray that as I finish my journey here on this earth
that I will grow my character
to be like Your Character
in that how I treat others is based entirely
on how I choose to demonstrate God in me
and not how I let the circumstance
and the actions of others dictate my reactions.
Lord, I know that if I ask in Your Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake
that it will be done according to my faith
so therefore Lord I pray to be more like You
and to treat others as You so graciously treat me!
Forgive me of my selfishness and how I have reacted in a “worldly” manner
to my circumstances, fill me with Your Holy Spirit and grant that when I am
tested that I will hear Your voice saying
“Come”.
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus takes us to a very personal level with this 2nd Question where He
refers to His followers as “you of little faith”.
We know that it is personal because when Jesus was walking on the water
to meet up with His disciples in the middle of the sea, we read,
“And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea,
they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!”
and they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying,
‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’”
(Matthew 14:26-27)
Clearly the disciples were not afraid of the “physical” dangers
of the wind and the waves for Jesus had already demonstrated
His Power over the “physical” in their previous boating experience in a storm
but here His disciples are addressing the “spiritual” dangers as they declared:
“It is a ghost” (and “ghosts” are “spirits” and do not appear in “physical” form).
The disciples could not process the sight
of a “physical” being “walking on the sea”
so they succumbed to their fear of the “spiritual”.
Jesus reacted to their fear “immediately” and assured them
that they were seeing Jesus Himself and He commanded them
“It is I; do not be afraid.”
(Matthew 14:28).
The circumstance then takes a personal turn
because when Jesus spoke to the group,
Peter then tested Jesus with a personal question,
“Lord, if it is You…”
but Jesus turned the Lesson personal and private
with His one-word response to Peter
“Come”.
In Matthew 14:27 Jesus was talking to His disciples collectively
as “them” and then in verse 28 we read
“And Peter answered Him and said,
‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come
to You on the water.”
[So Jesus said to Peter personally]
‘Come’…” (Matthew 14:28-29)
So the lesson went from the disciples as a group in verse 27
to Peter individually in verse 28
and also Jesus moved from calming the group fears
to addressing and Teaching a personal Lesson to Peter
with a one-word command addressed directly at Peter.
It should be noted here that it was Peter that challenged Jesus
but Jesus proved who He was
by Teaching a very personal Lesson to Peter
to be used as an example for all
that would be so bold as to challenge Jesus
as Jesus announces
“It is I”
while “walking on the sea” during a storm!
I personally think that
Peter is being used by God to Teach us that our “Faith”
will grow as we put it to the “test”.
Jesus used the challenge to “prove”
that indeed He IS Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and that there is no circumstance nor challenge
Jesus cannot immediately control and turn into a Lesson
that will promote us “spiritually”
and protect us “physically”!
The “personal” aspect can be seen as Jesus listened to Peter
and commanded Peter in the perfect way to answer
the personal question Peter had just asked directly to Jesus
and the personal response directed to Peter in reference
to the personal challenge by Peter to the
LORDSHIP of Jesus.
This circumstance is totally personal because
Jesus commanded Peter to do something personal ———
Jesus did not direct His response to the other disciples.
Jesus was talking directly to Peter
and addressing Peter’s personal challenge
to His Lordship
with a challenge of His own to Peter’s personal
“faith” in the Lordship of Christ
as Jesus simply commanded Peter to
“Come”
to Him.
The Lesson we need to learn here is that Jesus
is able to “save” us in any circumstance
and that Jesus will personally make Himself available to us
and will address every challenge we personally face for Jesus !
The “Truth of God” and our “Faith in Him” will ALWAYS
be proven to be well placed for
JESUS is the Christ
and can control every circumstance and will do so personally if necessary.
We know the outcome will be good because Jesus
“stretched out His hand and caught”
Peter as he was sinking.
JQ#15 takes on a different tone when we know it was asked as
Jesus was “saving” Peter
for Jesus addressed the Question to Peter personally:
JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”
(Matthew 14:31)
which in the personal context
Jesus is reassuring Peter
that Jesus will never fail us and should never be “doubted”.
If we will simply have
“Faith in Jesus”
we can boldly and confidently proclaim
“JESUS SAVES”.
It isn’t easy to explain why God would send Jesus to “save us”
even though we continually “doubt” Him
but aren’t You glad that God is God
regardless of how many times we challenge Him?
