JUNE 11 JQ#15-5: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 11    JQ#15-5: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, it is overwhelming to think that each day You are right there waiting for my prayers! There is no time during the day that You are so busy that we must wait to get a moment alone with You, and never have I called on Your Name that You didn’t stop and give me Your full attention. Lord Jesus, help me to understand that You are God Almighty, All Powerful, and can do anything and everything You desire, yet with all Your Power You still take the time to spend with me personally! Lord, may I never take for granted this extreme privilege of praying to the Creator and KNOWING THAT YOU HEAR ME! Lord Jesus, forgive me of my shortcomings and cleanse me eternally of my iniquities that I may be One with the Holy Trinity!        AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JQ#15-5: “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31) The events surrounding this particular event each are some great insights into the Character of God as we have seen many miracles by the Power of God directed towards “healing” and each thing Jesus has done reveals the Plan of Salvation that has been working even before the sun and moon were made and hung in place. This event is one of those events that Jesus uses to teach us about ourselves. If we will only recognize that Jesus is God and only through exercising the Power of God can He accomplish the Miracles of God and that only through us letting Jesus lead us that we can hope to be all that God has planned for us. God only wants good things for us and He desires that we have a “hope and a future” but our “hope” and our “future” must be centered around God and the kingdom of heaven and we, like Jesus, should be living our lives centered in the Will of the Father and doing “kingdom work”. This event happens just after Jesus was (1) rejected by His “own”, (2) learned of the beheading of His “forerunner” John the Baptist, and (3) Jesus, while seeking solitude, had shown “compassion” to the multitudes by the miracle feeding of “…about five thousand men, besides women and children…” with “…only five loves and two fish…”. We read, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.” (Matthew 14:22) It is important that we notice that the miracle feeding of the “five thousand” was a “team effort” on the part of Jesus, His disciples, and the Father in heaven as we note three verses where Jesus is “delegating” kingdom work to the disciples: (1) “But Jesus said to [His disciples], ‘[The multitudes] do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’” (Matthew 14:16) then (2) “[Jesus] said (to His disciples after they had found the five loaves and two fishes), ‘Bring them here to Me’” (Matthew 14:18) and (3) then after Jesus commanded the multitudes to “sit down on the grass” that Jesus “took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.” (Matthew 14:19) It is to be noted that the efforts of the disciples in this miracle resulted in Matthew writing, “So [the multitudes] all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.” (Matthew 14:20) Once we note that Jesus is involving the disciples in ministering to the multitudes we can better understand why “immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him…” while at the same time Jesus sent the multitudes away. By His actions, Jesus is setting the precedent of “setting His disciples aside” for the kingdom work of ministering to the “multitudes”. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus is ALWAYS teaching and this boat trip will not be any different. The last time the disciples made a trip by boat Jesus had been asleep in the back of the boat and when a great storm came upon the disciples they thought they were going to perish so they awoke Jesus and Jesus asked JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) and now we read that “…the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary…” so here several miracles later and after having participated personally in kingdom work and a miracle feeding of five thousand that the disciples find themselves once again in a boat in the middle of a storm. Jesus is continually moving us forward but He also stops and has us take personal inventory or our “spiritual” progress as a lesson in “building our faith”. Do you ever find yourself thinking you have made progress on your journey but just that quickly you find yourself in another storm? The “storm” is the perfect time for you to stop and ask yourself, “Have I built my faith on the Solid Rock of the Kingdom of Heaven or am I going to sink in the sifting sands of the world?”