Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Monday, January 31, 2011

St Matthew, Chapter 8, verses:25 - 26, The Gathereing Storm.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The storm on the lake) Part 2.  

Christ is sleeping in the boat and the waves are overflowing into the boat causing it to sink.  The disciples are in a panic and do not know what to do.  So they come and wake him from his sleep and say to him, "Lord, save us! we are perishing! "   Christ has just performed miracles before their eyes.  He has cured a leper.  He has healed a servent grieviously ill in bed.  He has banished a fever from Peter's mother-in-law, and performed other miracles, casting out demons and curing all that were brought to him.  Yet the disciples were affraid.  They feared for their lives.

We, in similar fashion, face perils and hardships calling upon God to save us.  When sickness comes we call upon God.  When disease comes we call upon God.  When disaster strikes we call upon God.  When death is knocking at our door, we call upon God.  When the bills are coming faster than we can see income to pay for them, we call upon God.  When doubt comes in, having us question our faith, we call upon GodLORD save us, we are perishing!!!  We call upon God.  Where is the knowledge of his wisdom within us?  Where is the belief in his love while we are holding his hand?  Where is the security of his protection when we are under his guidance?  Where did our courage go when we see peril approaching?  Do we not believe?  Do we not have faith in his power?  Do we not trust in his wisdom and his love and his protection for us?

Christ awoke from his sleep and spoke to his disciples saying,  "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"   Why do we fear, if we are with Christ?  Why do we not have faith if Christ is in our lives?  Do we not believe?  Do we have to call upon God for every little incident that comes into our lives?  Do we have to pray for every sickness that comes upon us?  Do we have to call upon him when the waves of the world seem to overtake us?  Or do we have faith?  What is faith if we do not have it?  Really,  W H A T   I S   F A I T H  and do we really have it?  

Christ has taken us on a journey of belief.  He has demonstrated to his disciples in his miracles those who had faith.  He has pointed out incidences of great faith to us and to his disciples.  Then, he provides us with the written test to see if we will pass.  He provided the disciples with their lack of faith when he slept in the boat and the waves of the sea seemed to overtake them.  He gave them a grade and they did not pass because they had not grasped the simple principle of faith. 

Do we have faith today?  Have we passed the written test that he has given us?  Have we failed to demonstrate that we have faith?  Christ is preparing his disciples for the time when his mission will end and he will take his rest with his father in heaven.  He is running them through the obstacle course to build up their faith.  He is training them on the basics of faith and how they should use it.  Are we paying attention when we read these passages, so that we will also be trained in our faith?   We are week human beings but faith makes us strong in him who is the source of all strength.  "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"