MARCH 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

MARCH 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#07 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I pray that Your Spirit will continue to consume me, Lord I proclaim as Paul did, I know that I have not yet attained the goal but I press on to the finish which is a race that I cannot run on my own strength, Lord I need You, I need Your daily Mercy and Grace and I do TRUST You to finish the good work You have begun in me. There is nothing in me that can move towards the prize of the high calling of service to the Kingdom so therefore refresh and renew in me a “Right Spirit” and “create in me a clean heart O God”!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is asking a most revealing Kingdom Question with JQ#07 - “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26a) and so far we haven’t even really considered the context in which this Question was asked. We looked at the immediate circumstance of Jesus and His disciples being in a “great tempest” after they had followed Jesus onto a boat and then when the tempest beset them His disciples panicked — but Jesus was sleeping. Of course, we like the disciples, see the waves and the tempest and we consider the physical consequences of drowning in our storms but we miss the spiritual consequences of (1) following Jesus through the storm and (2) trusting Him to “calm” even the worst “tempest” in our lives and (3) to know that our “faith” in JESUS is the only thing in our earthly lives that has “Sublime Eternal” consequences. The larger context of the circumstances of the “Teachings” of Jesus to His disciples should also be observed in terms of what had the disciples seen Jesus doing immediately prior to them getting on the boat and then ask ourselves if those actions of Jesus should have built their “faith” in His Power and Divine Nature???  After Jesus Taught the disciples the parable of the “two builders” (Matthew 7:24-27) which introduced the concept that we should build the “foundation” of our “faith” on “solid rock”, Jesus then laid the “ground floor” of our “faith in Jesus” by (1) healing the servant of a centurion as Jesus connected His Healing Power to our Faith Building when Jesus told the centurion (A) “I will come and heal him.” (Matthew 8:7) and (B) “Then Jesus said to the centurion, ‘Go your way; as you have believed, so let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that same hour.” (Matthew 8:13). Jesus continued His Lesson on His Healing Power when next He came to Peter’s house “ … [Jesus] saw [Peter’s] wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.” (Matthew 8:14-15) That very same evening the disciples had witnessed the villagers where Peter lived bringing “to [JESUS] many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick…” (Matthew 8:16) So Jesus gives the parable of the “two builders” to encourage the disciples to “build their faith” on Him and then He immediately demonstrates His Divine Power and Compassion for all people by “healing” both their “physical” and their “spiritual” ailments! When the tempest arose, the disciples acted like they hadn’t seen these Divine Attributes of Jesus — all the disciples could see was the “physical world” as they got into a boat, and then the boat gets in a great storm, and the wind and the waves of the tempest makes the disciples go into full panic mode — and the first thing Jesus says upon awakening and seeing their panic is, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) ???  JQ#07 should awaken us to the “obvious” that Jesus is in control of both the “physical” and the “spiritual” worlds and that He also has control over the natural world in which we live our day-to-day lives. If we also look at His Resurrection  we will see that He has control over our eternity as well so “Why are we fearful of the world and death” when all we have to do is to have FAITH in the ONE who died for our sins, rose the third day, sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us?    Jesus gave us all the resources we need to build our “Faith in God” but He wants us to hammer a nail or two ourselves!!!