JUNE 08 JQ#15-2: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 08    JQ#15-2: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, You are the One that Loves us. Jesus help us to understand that Your Love is not based on who we are or what we do but the Love of God is based solely on the character of The One True God and who HE IS and what HE DOES. God is the giver of Free Will and God Himself said that LOVE is not what others do to you, but what you do to others ——— and we are to LOVE based not on what others do to us but what we chose to do to others, we can either go the way of the world and take-take-take or we can follow God and give-give-give. Help us Lord to attain “heavenly perfection” in that we choose to be like You and Love others unconditionally.        AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JQ#15-2: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)  Jesus has been faithful in teaching us that “faith” is as important to our “spiritual life” as “air” is to our “physical life. Jesus has been living the perfect example in front of his disciples and they have heard His Teachings and have seen His Miracles and the only conclusion that everyone reaches is that “all these things” that Jesus has been teaching and accomplishing by His Miracles must be from God! Jesus has been asking specific questions that focus our attention like a laser beam on the areas in our faith that needs to be improved upon and as we saw in JQ#14, Jesus wants to make sure that we “understand all these things” and the only reason we can use to explain why Jesus would “Teach” in the Power of God, perform Miracles in the Power of God, and then make sure that we Understand is that Jesus wants us to have “spiritual success”, therefore Jesus never stops teaching and He uses questions and then answers them plainly, He uses parables and then explains them clearly, and then He “Lives” His Life Perfectly so that everyone can see that “Faith in God” is to be used 24/7/365 in the way we live our lives. Jesus had just taught the multitudes in parables but now Jesus “had finished these parables” and “He departed from there” (Matthew 13:53) and we read that “When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they we astonished…” (Matthew 13:54) but we get a glimpse of why Jesus starts  JQ#15 with the statement, “O you of little faith…” for even though the people were simply “astonished” by His Teaching they could not get over their “spiritual blindness” and were proving what Jesus had previously taught that the “unbelievers” would have “eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear” and the disciples could now see that without “understanding” that we are blind and deaf to “Spiritual Truth of God”. Jesus also had taught about “fear and faith” once before when the disciples were out on the sea in a boat when a great storm had arisen and He was sleeping in the back of the boat and when His disciples woke Him up, Jesus had asked “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) After Jesus had gotten their attention with the storm and the fear question, Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and probably went back to sleep. We find Jesus still teaching His disciples that if we follow Jesus we will always be learning because He is always “Teaching” and He makes sure we “understand” so that may mean that we have to be taught several times the same lesson to truly “understand” and in this case Jesus is teaching an advanced course on “Faith” and this time He will point out that our “little faith” will not only cause us to “fear” but Jesus is now going to teach that “little faith” is the root of our “doubt” and the logical conclusion of “doubt” is “fear” therefore Jesus is going to give His disciples several extra lessons on building our faith and also Jesus will expose the root cause of a faith that is weak. This first example happens in His “own country” and the disciples see a previous lesson coming to life as the people in His “own country” doubt Jesus is really God because they knew the names of His earthly (physical) Mother, brothers, and sisters so they must have missed Jesus proclaiming that “whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:30) The scriptures tell us that all those that were stuck on the “physical” realm had missed the “Spiritual Truth” that Jesus was the Son of God and that “they we offended at Him” (Matthew 13:57) The results of their unbelief is that they actually prevented Jesus from using the Power of God among them as we read, “Now He did not do many mighty works there (in His own country) because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58) Jesus is illustrating why it is important that we “spiritually understand” because our “unbelief” is the root cause of our doubt and fear and Jesus is continuing to teach us with every occasion that to building our “Faith” on the “Solid Rock” is our best defense against the storms of life and will open the door to His Blessings in our life! Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, what blessings have I missed because of my own “unbelief” ?