MAY 16 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

MAY 16  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Son of God who gave Himself for the sins of the world even though men reject the “Gift”.  God despite all the worldly rejection is still Gracious in extending His Invitation to “whosoever”. God remains eternally Faithful in His Character and encourages ALL to accept His Offer of Eternal Life!  It will forever be a mystery why God went through so much trouble to prove His Love to us and why we so easily embrace the world of death and darkness and reject His Gift of Eternal Light and Life!?!  Lord give me the self discipline to see past my daily physical life on earth and to focus on my eternal spiritual life in heaven and that by knowing Your Mercy and Grace I will focus on helping others and contribute to Kingdom Work and quit contradicting the “King” Himself. Praise God from whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JQ#15 to JQ#16 Transition: “Also…add to your faith…” (2 Peter 1:5)  The Jesus Questions have been a blessing in themselves and today God added one of His “unexpected” extras that He does when we are following Him. JQ#15 gave me a “personal” insight into many of my “faith” shortcomings in that I know from my “personal experiences” that Jesus is the Son of God and He has done miracle after miracle in my life and yet there are times that I let my “faith” falter and I fall prey to my “demon of doubt” and end up questioning the Lordship of Jesus in my life. I had read with amazement that the children of Israel had experienced God’s Grace in freeing them from their slavery in Egypt as God miraculously delivered them from Pharaoh’s army by parting the Red Sea but once they were safely on the “other side” they rebelled against God and whined to go back to slavery!?!?! Then in JQ#15 I see Peter actually challenge Jesus while Jesus is walking on water in a storm at sea and yet Jesus is speaking “Peace” to Peter and invites Peter to “Come”!?!?! So today as I was considering my own “faith” and how I often “challenge” the Lordship of Jesus in my life, the Holy Spirit recalled to my mind a devotional in Oswald Chamber’s Daily Journal “My Utmost for His Highest” on day “JUNE 15”. I retrieved the journal and turned to June 15 and as I read my prayer for that day, God spoke to me through my own words in that prayer written in 2004. How God spoke to me was that just after reading the devotional for 2004 in “Utmost” I then read my prayer written on the opposite page in 2016 and I was amazed at how God manages to Teach us “True Faith” by using our own life to address our fears and doubts about Him, which is what I think Jesus did for Peter in JQ#15 when Jesus simply extended the invitation to Peter to “Come” and Peter actually walked on water!?!?! I have been experiencing some great works of God lately in my personal life but the “joy” was not there and then today as I read my own prayers written 12 years apart I could see that God has been working daily in those twelve years to get me to this point to learn about His Love, even though I have occasionally been “looking back” at my former life in slavery to sin and I had been missing “rejoicing” in my “personal freedom from sin” that God has provided to me through His Son Jesus Christ! I have been in effect “challenging” the very character of God by wanting to return to my slavery from which God has performed many miracles that provides “deliverance” from them. Once again God proved Himself and He has exposed my “lack of faith” which is a terrible character flaw for someone that is following Jesus!  God has already done all that must be done for our salvation — so why do we still seek for more “signs” for God to prove that He IS GOD? I leave The JESUS Questions today with this Oswald Chambers quote from his JUNE 15 “Utmost” commentary and will let you see if it applies to you also ?!?!?!  

“In the matter of drudgery. Peter said in this passage that we have become partakers ‘of the divine nature’  and that we should now be ‘giving all diligence’, concentrating on forming godly habits (2 Peter 1:4-5) We are to ‘add’ to our lives all that character means. No one is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; it must be developed. (2 Peter 1:5)”

When I read that passage and realized it was written by the same Peter that had “challenged” Jesus to prove Himself and had actually had a very personal Lesson Taught to him after he got out of the boat, I wondered if I would have stepped out of the boat and if I did step out for Jesus, how many steps would I have taken before I fell back into my old character and sank beneath the waves of “doubt” only to have Jesus “prove Himself once again” and extend His Hand in Love in the midst of my doubt and build my character as only Jesus can? Each Lesson Jesus Teaches is to “build our character” which I am learning that in my personal life that my “character” is proportional to my “Faith in Jesus” ——— have you been struggling with your character lately?