MAY 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)

 MAY 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#15 “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:31)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are the One that Loves us. Jesus help us to understand that Your Love is not based on who we are or what we do but the Love of God is based solely on the character of The One True God and who HE IS and what HE DOES. God is the giver of Free Will and God Himself said that LOVE is not what others do to you, but what you do to others ——— and we are to LOVE based not on what others do to us but what we chose to do to others, we can either go the way of the world and take-take-take or we can follow God and give-give-give. Help us Lord to attain “heavenly perfection” in that we choose to be like You and Love others unconditionally.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been faithful in Teaching us that “faith in God” is as important to our “spiritual” life as “air” is to our “physical” life. Jesus has been Living the Perfect Example in front of His disciples and they have heard His Teachings and have seen His Miracles and the only conclusion that everyone reaches is that “all these things” that Jesus has been Teaching and accomplishing by His Miracles must be from God! Jesus has been asking specific Questions that focus our attention like a laser beam on the areas in our faith that needs to be improved upon and as we saw in JQ#14, Jesus wants to make sure that we “understand all these things” and the only reason we can use to explain why Jesus would Teach in the Power of God, perform Miracles in the Power of God, and then make sure that we “Understand” the Power of God is that Jesus wants us to have “spiritual success” that comes ONLY from the Power of God!!! Therefore, Jesus never stops Teaching and He uses Questions to make us think on the Kingdom of Heaven and then He answers them plainly, He uses parables and then Jesus explains these Thought Questions clearly, but more importantly Jesus “Lives” His Life Perfectly so that everyone can see that “Faith in God” is to be used 24/7/365 in the way we live our daily lives. Jesus had just Taught the multitudes in parables but now Jesus “had finished these parables” and “He departed from there” (Matthew 13:53) . We read that “When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished…” (Matthew 13:54) and it is at this point that we get a glimpse of why Jesus starts JQ#15 with the statement, “O you of little faith…” for even though the people were simply “astonished” by His Teaching, they could not get over their “spiritual blindness” and were proving what Jesus had previously Taught that the “unbelievers” would have “eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear” (Matthew 13:14) and the disciples could now see that without “understanding” that we are blind and deaf to the “Spiritual Truth of God”. Jesus also had Taught about “fear and faith” once before when the disciples were out on the sea in a boat when a great storm had arisen and Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat and when His disciples woke Him up, Jesus had asked JQ#7 “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) After Jesus had gotten their attention with the storm and the “fear” Question, Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and probably went back to sleep. We find Jesus still Teaching His disciples that if we follow Jesus we will should always be learning from Him because He is always Teaching and Jesus always goes the second mile and makes sure we “understand His Spiritual Lessons” — even if that means that we have to be Taught the same lesson several times to truly “understand”! In this case Jesus is Teaching an advanced course on “Faith in God” and this time He will point out that our “little faith” will cause us to “fear” and Jesus Teaches us that “little faith” is the root of all our “doubt” because the logical conclusion of “doubt” is “fear”! Therefore Jesus is going to give His disciples several extra lessons on building our faith and also Jesus will expose that the root cause of a weak faith is allowing ourselves to “doubt” God! This first example happens in His “own country” and the disciples see a previous lesson coming to life as the people in His “own country” doubt that Jesus is really God because they knew the names of His earthly (physical) mother, brothers, and sisters so they must have missed Jesus proclaiming that “whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:30) The scriptures tell us that all those stuck on the “physical” realm have missed the “Spiritual Truth” that Jesus IS the Son of God and that “they [are] offended at Him” (Matthew 13:57) The results of their “doubt” (unbelief) is that they actually prevented Jesus from using the Power of God among them as we read, “Now He did not do many mighty works there [in His own country] because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58) Jesus is illustrating why it is important that we spiritually “understand” because where there is no “understanding” there is “doubt” and our “unbelief” is the worldly fruit of our “doubt and fear” ! Jesus is continuing to Teach us with every occasion that building our “Faith” on the “Solid Rock” is our best defense against the storms of life and will open the door to His Blessings in our life! Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “What blessings have I missed because of my own ‘unbelief’” ?