MAY 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

MAY 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS Precious Jesus —“Thank You, You took my sins away, and I want to Praise You for all that You’ve done, so this is the prayer that I pray — please help me Lord to give of myself and to share with my fellow man, for You have said that there’s no greater love than to give your life for a friend, for all the souls lost, You died on a cross, You gave and You gave some more, so that sinners like me might truly be free, Your death opens life’s door!” (From a song given to me while in the “SPIRIT” in the late 1980s that I still sing today.)     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches with His Questions by both “Reason” and by “Emotion”. When we look at the “Reason” behind our answer to His Question, Jesus points out the Truth behind our “Choice” and the “Emotion” that is the “Consequence” of our “Choice” and the “Reason” why we made our “Choice”!  When I first read these words in JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31) many years ago when I had first embarked on my journey to God, I imagined seeing Jesus saying these words to me and shaking His head and I imagined that I heard a tone in His voice that caused me to feel shame!? Now many years later as I read those same words and look back on how I felt about Jesus in general at the beginning of my journey, I realize I did not “know” Him. All I could imagine before I “knew” Jesus was what I had seen from the world and from worldly men and I knew that I was guilty because indeed my faith was “small” at best and was close to nonexistent — so when I read Matthew 14:31 I can actually still feel the shame and hear a “rebuke” for that was what my life was like, I was “guilty” and was “full of doubt” and all I had heard from the world was “rebuke”! Now as I have been “walking” with Jesus for several years and have been learning to “know” Jesus and “understanding” that Jesus “knows” me but Loves me anyway, when I read Matthew 14:31 now I don’t feel “guilt” and I no longer hear a “rebuke”. What I hear at this point in my journey is a soft encouraging Voice full of compassion for my weakness and what I feel is a Loving Savior gently putting His hand under my chin and lifting my head up so that I can look into His smiling face and He says sweetly to me, “Hold your head up, ‘O you of little faith…’” and then He assures me, “I will never leave you nor forsake you…” (Deuteronomy 31:6) and then with calm assurance in His Voice He looks deep into my soul and says “your doubt will disappear when You trust me with all your heart.” I do not feel shame nor rebuke, I now know that I am “forgiven and loved” and that is a long way to come on any journey but it is well worth the trip! What do you feel when you read this statement Jesus made in Matthew? It is a great barometer on the state of your “spiritual” life and it is worth “understanding” just exactly what Jesus is saying to you and wanting you to feel in your soul as He speaks these words to you. The original words were spoken in a very unusual situation and volumes could be written about the story that unfolded when Jesus spoke these words to Peter. The story and the words make more sense if we look at the things that Jesus had Taught and done just prior to speaking these words to Peter so let’s look at the events leading up to this Question Jesus posed to Peter and we will better understand the “tone” that Jesus was using. Jesus had just been rejected as He had tried to Teach in “His own country” (Matthew 13:57) and then Matthew writes about John the Baptist who had proclaimed when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) and Matthew documents that John the Baptist had been beheaded and “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself.” (Matthew 14:13a) We can feel Jesus wanting to be alone for He had been “rejected” by His “own” and now He has received news that John the Baptist who had proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah had been beheaded for teaching God’s Truth and we can sense Jesus is “dejected” ——— “But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities, and when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:13b-14)  What a great example Jesus lived for us so that in times when we feel “rejected and dejected” that we should learn the Lesson that the best way to help ourselves is to show “compassion” to others. Right after that event we then see Jesus feeding “about five thousand men, besides women and children” and He did it with “Five loaves and two fish” (Matthew 14:15-21) So when we look at these events and how Jesus reacted to them we can be greatly encouraged that we too can face these problems that come into everyone’s life at some time or another, or do you think that the best way to take care of “despair” is to “pout” your cares away?