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?   

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

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

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord thank You for Your Mercy and Grace that regardless of our circumstances You Lord are Faithful and True to Your Holy Character. Lord I pray that as I finish my journey here on this earth that I will grow my character to be like Your Character in that how I treat others is based entirely on how I choose to demonstrate God in me and not how I let the circumstance and the actions of others dictate my reactions. Lord, I know that if I ask in Your Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake that it will be done according to my faith so therefore Lord I pray to be more like You and to treat others as You so graciously treat me! Forgive me of my selfishness and how I have reacted in a “worldly” manner to my circumstances, fill me with Your Holy Spirit and grant that when I am tested that I will hear Your voice saying “Come”.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus takes us to a very personal level with this 2nd Question where He refers to His followers as “you of little faith”. We know that it is personal because when Jesus was walking on the water to meet up with His disciples in the middle of the sea, we read, “And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!” and they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’” (Matthew 14:26-27) Clearly the disciples were not afraid of the “physical” dangers of the wind and the waves for Jesus had already demonstrated His Power over the “physical” in their previous boating experience in a storm but here His disciples are addressing the “spiritual” as they declared: “It is a ghost” (and “ghosts” are “spirits” and do not appear in “physical” form). The disciples could not process the sight of a “physical” being “walking on the sea” so they succumbed to their fear of the “spiritual”. Jesus reacted to their fear “immediately” and assured them that they were seeing Jesus Himself and He commanded them “It is I; do not be afraid.” (Matthew 14:28). The circumstance then takes a personal turn because when Jesus spoke to the group, Peter then tested Jesus with a personal question “Lord, if it is You…” but Jesus turned the Lesson personal and private with His one-word response to Peter “Come”. In Matthew 14:27 Jesus was talking to His disciples collectively as “them” and then in verse 28 we read “And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” [So Jesus said to Peter personally] ‘Come’…” (Matthew 14:28-29) So the lesson went from the disciples as a group in verse 27 to Peter individually in verse 28 and also Jesus moved from calming the group fears to addressing a Teaching a personal Lesson to Peter with a one-word command addressed directly at Peter. It should be noted here that it was Peter that challenged Jesus but Jesus proved who He was by Teaching a very personal Lesson to Peter to be used as an example for all that would be so bold as to challenge Jesus as Jesus announces “It is I” while “walking on the sea” during a storm! I personally think that Peter is being used by God to Teach us that our “Faith” will grow as we put it to the “test”.  Jesus used the challenge to “prove” that indeed He IS Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that there is no circumstance nor challenge Jesus cannot immediately control and turn into a Lesson that will promote us “spiritually” and protect us “physically”! The “personal” aspect can be seen as Jesus listened to Peter and commanded Peter in the perfect way to answer the personal question Peter had just asked directly to Jesus and the personal response directed to Peter in reference to the personal challenge by Peter to the LORDSHIP of Jesus. This circumstance is totally personal because Jesus commanded Peter to do something personal ——— Jesus did not direct His response to the other disciples. It was Jesus talking to Peter and addressing the personal challenge to His Lordship with a challenge of His own to Peter’s personal “faith” in the Lordship of Christ as Jesus simply commanded Peter to “Come” to Him. The Lesson we need to learn here is that Jesus is able to “save” us in any circumstance and that Jesus will personally make Himself available to us and will address every challenge we personally face for Jesus !   The “Truth of God” and our “Faith in Him” will ALWAYS be proven to be well placed for JESUS is the Christ and can control every circumstance and will do so personally if necessary. We know the outcome will be good because Jesus “stretched out His hand and caught” Peter as he was sinking. JQ#15 takes on a different tone when we know it was asked as Jesus was “saving” Peter for Jesus addressed the Question to Peter personally: JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31) which in the personal context Jesus is reassuring Peter that Jesus will never fail us and should never be “doubted”.  If we will simply have “Faith in Jesus” we can boldly and confidently proclaim “JESUS SAVES”. It isn’t easy to explain why God would send Jesus to “save us” even though we continually “doubt” Him but aren’t You glad that God is God regardless of how many times we challenge Him?

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

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

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are the Giver of Life and my Praise is to thank You for this wonderful life that You have provided for us as we pass through this valley of the shadow of death. Lord help me to always know that it is only “shadows” that are cast when I let the world come between me and Your Holy Light and when I move into Your Presence and let Your Love illuminate my life then the “shadows of doubt” are dispelled and my fears caused by the “shadows” all cease and I enter into Your Peace and Your Rest. Thank You Lord for Your Sacrifice of Yourself for my sins that I might be bathed in Your Righteousness so that I may have fellowship with the Father.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has used a boat and a storm twice now to teach us about “Faith in God” — JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) and now Jesus again turns our thoughts to “Faith in God” as He asks JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) The common “spiritual” elements to go along with the physical elements “boat & storms” are “faith & fear” and Jesus Teaches us that it is a “fear” caused by the lack of “faith” which grows from the seeds of doubt sowed by the storms of this earthly world. 

{{Part 2 Jesus and Peter walk on the water}}  

In Part 1 a comparison was made between the first time the disciples encountered storm troubles while out in a boat and this second time the disciples found themselves again in a boat in a storm on the sea. The first event occurred after the disciples had witnessed a series of miracles that in essence proved that Jesus IS the Son of God for only God’s Power could have accomplished the miracles that Jesus had performed. The disciples had witnessed the miracles and then followed Jesus into the boat and the storm came when Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. The second Lesson on  “Faith & Storms” was different in a major way because just before going out to sea the second time, the disciples themselves were actively involved in doing kingdom work and though it was still the Power of God that accomplished the miracle, the disciples themselves were used as a vessel through which God had accomplished His Work in the lives of the “multitudes”. This second event is also markedly different in that when Jesus had “compassion on the multitudes” that He “commanded” His disciples “you give them something…”(Matthew 14:16) which in essence was the “passing of the mantle” to His disciples to address the needs of the multitudes. Then as they moved from the miracle of feeding “five thousand, besides women and children” that “Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him”. We can look at the first event at sea and those miracles that the disciples witnessed Jesus doing in the Power of God as a “Teaching” experience and this second event has the focus shifted so that it is a “Learning” experience and a “Test” to see what the disciples have learned about kingdom work and the “Power of God” used to address the “needs” of the multitudes. Of great importance to note with the second event is that Jesus is foreshadowing the fact that He is making “disciples get into the boat” with the intended purpose that through His disciples that the kingdom work will continue as Jesus commands each of His followers to follow His example and then to go out on our own “in the Name and Power of Jesus” and do kingdom work that God intends each of us to do. When Jesus commanded His disciples to get into the boat and “go before Him” there is no doubt that we are called as “disciples” to “learn” that God desires to work His Power through us and then we are to “Go before Him”. To me this says that Jesus wants us to “introduce” Him to others but Jesus promises that He will show up when He is needed and the “timing” is such that God will receive the glory. If Jesus commands us to “go before Him” then it means that He is going to meet up with us again! The second great Lesson from the second encounter is that Peter demonstrated that God is “transferring” His power to those that are willing to do His Work and step out of the boat on “Faith”!!! We see that as Peter listened to Jesus when Jesus had commanded  Peter to “Come” that Peter was able to walk on water just like Jesus was doing and it was only when Peter saw himself as part of the world did he start sinking. As long as Peter was “in the Spirit” following the command of Jesus and had total “Faith in the Power of God” Peter possessed the “Power of God” to walk on water! We as disciples must get beyond our limited “physical power” and tap into the limitless “Spiritual Power” that God has already demonstrated that He is willing to share with those who are willing to “Go” and do kingdom work. God will NEVER ask us to do anything that He hasn’t already provided us with the ability and “Power” to do. Each Lesson is designed to equip us with a little more experience in “how” God has chosen to accomplish “His Desires” for His “chosen ones”! As soon as Jesus calls us individually to “Follow Him” we should understand that from that point  when we respond to His command to “Come [to Jesus]” that we become by “Faith in Jesus His chosen ones”!!!   As His disciples, Jesus for all eternity will be continually “Teaching” us how to “Go” and once we have “Faith” enough to “get into the boat and go before Him to the other side”  we can have Supreme Confidence that He will protect us from the storms if we are following Jesus and doing kingdom work! Can you purchase a better retirement plan or invest your time in a more profitable endeavor than having the Power of God provided for you for all eternity? Or I must ask you the same question I asked myself —  “Are you having trouble accepting yourself as “God’s chosen ones”? If we are to “Be like Jesus” then we must be willing to accept being called “God’s chosen” for who but Jesus is “The Chosen One” and has He not commanded us to “Come Follow Me”?

MAY 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

MAY 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Jesus, today there is nothing but Praise in my heart for You and the moving of Your Spirit that we have seen this week through Your Church. Lord we know that Your Church is not made of bricks and mortar but of flesh and blood and hearts that have been given to helping others ——— so Lord let us be more like You each day of our life and remember that how we treat others is a direct reflection on how we feel about You, thank You Lord for letting our vessels pour out Your Love on those around us that they too may drink of THE LIVING WATER!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used the Example of His Daily Life as the Greatest Witness to the Power of God that the world has ever seen! In this event of another boat filled with His disciples and in another great storm where the wind and the waves of the world were “contrary”, Jesus walking on the stormy seas towards His followers demonstrates that the Creator God is in control of all circumstances and even if we encounter multiple bad storms in our life that God is in control of His Creation and the souls that He has placed in the world — and God is very much in control of our personal circumstances — but to see God working in the “storm” we must focus on God and not the storm!!! In other words, if we are to see God working in our “problems [storms]” we must focus on the “solution [God]” and not the “problems [storms]!!! 

 {{Part 1 Jesus and Peter walks on the water}} 

When the context surrounding this event in which Jesus asked “Why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) is looked at from a “spiritual” perspective and the reader takes into consideration that this is the second event in which the disciples were out to sea during a storm, we can then make a comparison between the two events which appear at first reading to be the same event. Jesus always has a Reason and this event, though similar, has some distinct differences that Jesus uses to move us forward in our understanding of God and His will for our lives so let us look at not only what is similar with these two “boating-in-a-storm experiences” but what is different about them so that we can understand what Kingdom Lesson Jesus intends for His followers. The first “boating-in-a-storm” event is introduced with “Now when [Jesus] got into a boat, His disciples followed Him…suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea…but Jesus was asleep…His disciples awoke Him, saying Lord, save us! We are perishing! …Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.” (Matthew 8:23-26)  Before the first BOAT-IN-A-STORM ride Jesus had just Taught the parable of the two builders, cleansed a leper, healed both the Centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law, and had made this statement about “faith” ——— “Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” (Matthew 7:24 - 8:22) These were the events leading up to the first BOAT-IN-A-STORM trip so let’s compare those with this second BOAT-IN-A-STORM experience. The second boating experience starts with “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) The event preceding the statement of “immediately Jesus made His disciples”  was the feeding of the five thousand where instead of Jesus Himself alone doing acts of healing, His disciples had been active and were personally involved in the miracle feeding of the multitudes as Jesus had commanded His disciples “You give them something to eat” and commanded His disciples: “[You] Bring [the multitudes] here to Me” then Jesus broke and blessed the bread and made His  disciples “serve” the “multitudes”. So the first difference is that the events leading up to the first boating experience was Jesus performing miracles and His disciples were observing but the events leading up to the second boating experience had His disciples actively involved in the public ministry of Jesus and doing “kingdom work”. The second difference is that in the first event Jesus got into the boat and His disciples had followed Him into the boat but in the second event, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat without Him and had commanded them to “go before Him to the other side”. (Matthew 14:22) The third difference that stands out is that in the first event Jesus is with them in the boat when the storm arises and His disciples were fearful of losing their lives so they awoke Jesus WHO WAS SLEEPING IN THE BACK OF THE BOAT but in the second event His disciples are alone in the “middle of the sea, tossed by the waves…”  and  “in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.”(Matthew 14:25) In the first event His disciples were panicked and thought they were “perishing” but in this event His disciples are only “troubled” and in this second “storm” His disciples began to “fear” when they thought they were seeing a ghost, “…they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ and they cried out in fear.” (Matthew 14:26) In the first event Jesus woke up and rebuked His disciples and the waves. Then after controlling the elements Jesus went back to sleep, but in this second event when the disciples cry out Jesus does not rebuke them but instead He reassures them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27) The second event marks a milestone in faith for His disciples because even though the waves are “contrary” Peter “answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’”(Matthew 14:28) and we read the one-word command Jesus gives to all of His followers — “Come”   (Matthew 14:29)   It is at this point where Peter fixes his eyes firmly on Jesus and steps out of the boat on “Faith” and Peter actually starts walking on water himself! What a Lesson to learn here because when Peter “had come down out of the boat, [and] walked on the water to go to Jesus” Peter clearly demonstrated that Peter had within himself all the “Power of Jesus” when his “Faith” was focused entirely on Jesus (Matthew 14:29) because it was only when Peter came out of the “Spirit of God [FAITH IN GOD]  within him” and became aware of the “physical world [storm] around him” that he began to sink — “But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord save me!’” (Matthew 14:30) I am sure that Peter’s faith was bolstered when “…immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him…” (Matthew 14:31) “and when [Peter and Jesus] got into the boat the wind ceased.” (Matthew 14:32) If we keep our focus on Jesus, we would learn as His disciples did, that “Truly [Jesus is] the Son of God” (Matthew 14 :33) and if we will reach out to Him and declare our need of a Savior, the Savior will draw us into His Salvation and Shelter us from the “storm” ——— or do you believe that you will get “lucky” and never encounter any “storms” in your life, nor is there any need of a “Savior” in our perfect lives?

MAY 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

MAY 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

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 spend Your Precious time to be 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

Jesus always used the events of His daily Life to Teach us Lessons to apply to our day-to-day lives. The events surrounding this particular Lesson addressed by JQ#15 are in themselves some great insights into the Character of God as we have seen many miracles from Jesus performed by the Power of God directed towards “healing” and each miracle Jesus has performed by the Power of God’s Holy Spirit reveals the Plan of Salvation that has been working in the world even before the sun and moon were made and hung in place on Day 4 of The Creation. This event recorded in Matthew 14:22-33 occurred just after Jesus had fed “the multitudes” and is one of those “Divine” events that Jesus uses to Teach us about ourselves and this Lesson reveals a deep “spiritual” Truth of our very own souls! If we will only recognize that Jesus is God and that only through exercising the Power of God can the Miracles of God be accomplished in our lives and the Lessons of Truth can be learned ——— and only through us letting Jesus lead us can we 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 daily lives centered in the Will of the Father and doing “kingdom work”. Please note that the timing of this Divine Event happened 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…” (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 our 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 His disciples to tell 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 following the command of Jesus 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 His disciples in ministering to the multitudes, we can better understand why “immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him…” ! 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 where Jesus commanded His disciples to “go before Him to the other side” will not be any different. The last time His disciples made a trip by boat, Jesus had been asleep in the back of the boat and when a great storm had come upon His disciples and during that voyage 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). In this passage in JQ#15 we read that “…the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary…” (Matthew 14:24) — so now His disciples after having seen Jesus perform several miracles, and after having participated personally in “kingdom work” of the miracle feeding of five thousand — the disciples of Jesus find themselves once again in a boat in the middle of a storm! But this time Jesus is not with them (or is He?)! Jesus is continually moving us forward but He also stops and Jesus has us take personal inventory of our “spiritual progress” as a Spiritual 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 and “[crying] out for fear…” Matthew 14:26) ? 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 and Faith in God or am I going to sink in the sifting sands of the world?” 

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/pray today.)     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches with His Questions with “Reason” and “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?

MAY 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

MAY 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, O the sweet privilege to say the Name above all names, Jesus. There is great comfort in knowing that there is the Power of all powers in the Name of Jesus and we have been given the right to speak the Name Jesus and bring that Power to play in our lives! Jesus, I bow before You and humbly ask that You grant that my life will be given to serving You and that the way that I lived my life for myself before I started living for You will be buried with my sins. I pray that the New Life I now live with You in me will be used totally for the Glory of God.             AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never really leaves one Lesson standing alone and moves on to another separate Lesson, but Jesus always uses His previous Lessons to weave together our “understanding” of what “Life” with God really means, both now in the physical and what “knowing God” means for our eternal future! Jesus used every situation He found Himself in to “Teach” us “to know” our Father in heaven and to prepare us to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of heaven that the Father has established for all those that “Believe in God”. Those that “Choose” to “Believe in God” will spend eternity with Him by virtue of their “Choice”! After Jesus Taught the multitudes in parables He then went to His “own country” but was rejected because those that knew Jesus as the son of Mary could not see Jesus as the Son of God! Because of their “unbelief”, the “Spiritual Power” of Jesus was limited as we read Matthew’s account of Jesus being rejected by those in His “own country”: “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) Lest we miss the Lesson contained here in these 6 verses to end the 13th chapter in Matthew, let us stop and consider that these 6 verses are just as “inspired” as are all verses in scripture and let us look at the context, for Jesus never used a problem to gain sympathy for Himself but was continually drawing our attention to the “Truth of God”! These 6 verses reveal what I believe is one of the most overlooked “Truth of God” as Jesus reveals how the Father has chosen to be “sovereign” and demonstrate His Power over all Creation. Think for a moment about the “Free Will” gift that God has given mankind and apply it to this situation where Jesus was rejected by His “own” with the results being that Jesus “did not do many mighty works there…”. A surface reading from a worldly viewpoint would say that Jesus was mad at them and was just “pouting” and that Jesus simply decided that He would not do any “mighty works” because of some form of punishment ——— but immediately we can see that thinking negatively like that goes against everything Jesus has been Teaching and against everything Jesus has been demonstrating with His life which was being Perfectly Lived through the Power of GOD to help others. The Truth of God that is overlooked is that when God gave us the “gift” of “Free Will” that God demonstrated His Supreme Confidence in His Ability to handle every circumstance and therefore God said that if we want to use our “Free Will” to reject Him that He promised to “honor” that “choice”, not because we deserve to have our “choices” honored but because God Himself “Chose” to bestow His Honor on our “Choice”.  The Truth of God is that the Power of God is bestowed on our “Choice” ——— in other words, God says: “If you want to use your Free Will to reject Me, that because of who I AM, I will not force you to accept Me, but I will remove Myself from you until you choose to allow Me back into your life!” Jesus is demonstrating that our “Belief in God” carries the the Power of God with it and although Jesus wanted to “Give” and to “Teach” the Lessons of the kingdom of heaven to the people in His “own country” that when they used their God-Given Power of Free Will to “reject Him” that He honored their “choice”! Therefore it was their “unbelief” that prevented Jesus from bestowing the blessing of “understanding” on them! God has proven that He will not take back any gift that He gives us and that we have a “spiritual responsibility” to use the “gifts” God bestows on us to help others but if we “choose” to trust in ourselves and reject God, that is exactly what we will get! God will respect our “choice” and we will simply have to go through life without God and that “Choice” will extend to our eternity as well, because it is only logical that if we choose to live without God then we have also chosen to die without God! I don’t know about you but I can’t think of a sadder circumstance than to have all the Power of God at your command but then “choose” to call God and His Omnipotent Power useless and dispose of it instead of using it in our lives as God intended with His “Gift” of “Freewill Choice”? Can’t you see that when we “choose” to live without God that we are wielding the only Power able to prevent God from working in our life!!! By rejecting God, we bring all these negative things on ourself because of our “unbelief” and “unbelief” grows from a single seed of “doubt”!!! Be careful how you use your Free Will, it has eternal consequences and it is totally in your control!! Can you hear Jesus asking, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”