Daily Devotion

Ye of Little Faith

 

Stop letting your mind cripple you and believe, have faith I tell you!! Six different times in the book of Matthew Jesus says to the disciples "O Ye of Little Faith."  In Matthew 8:26 during the storm on the sea Jesus says:  'He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.'  In Matthew 14:31 when Peter began to sink as he walked out on the water to Jesus, he cried out for Jesus' help.  'Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"'  In Matthew 17:14-20, Jesus meets a man with a possibly schizophrenic child; the man took his son to the Disciples and they could not heal  him.  Jesus says "O faithless and perverse generation.." in Matthew 17:17.  I hope you're getting the central theme--a lack of faith and unbelief open the doorway for fear to take over. Its like on TV when the teenager is only having a few friends over, they open the door and in comes the party... 

 

2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."  God did not give fear to us; rather, we inherited it after Pandora's box was open at Adam's sin.  Because we are but flesh, we fear, we get scared, we get afraid.  And because our minds are inclined to rational reason, we doubt what we do not see, we do not believe what God tells us.  We do not believe, therefore we do not have faith.  Jesus reprimanded the Disciples after they failed to believe in the abilities He gave to them:  "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."(Matthew 17:20)

 

I had a beautiful experience today.  Y'all know I have been applying to seminary, and I found out yesterday that one of the scholarships I am applying for had the date bumped up for the deadline for the essay.  It was only God, because of my anal tendencies--the paper I had originally printed looked raggedy to me, lol--that I went back on the website to print another application.  I learned that the essay and scholarship application are now due January 15 instead of February 1.  So obviously I'm going to crack down and crank it out.  But I called the admissions office and God spoke to me directly through the woman that answered the phone.  I called to clarify and make sure that the information I had was correct, because I could no longer find the original application that I have.  I of course lately had been letting doubt and unbelief because of all the uncertainties in my life dictate what I have been doing--like not writing my devotions and slacking on my applications.  (I'm glad to say that I am nearly done with the exception of recommendations by the way, . It was only God that I called today, because He knew He needed to get me directly on the line.  She only started working there this week, and she was only in the office because no one else was there--she is a MTh or ThD student.  There are no coincidences people!  So she told me her testimony of how God moved her to Atlanta to go to Emory--she missed the original deadline; God told her to keep pressing and apply even after the deadline and was accepted anyway. She had to defer for a year because she did not have the money to attend, but then God told her to pack as much as she could in her car and just go and drive to Atlanta.  She was afraid and skeptical but obedient. Of course when she got there, she had the money to go to school.  Then the next year, she was uncertain of finances for school again, and was gonna pack her car and go back to New Haven, but of course God made a way for her.  I told her I don't like saying I'm afraid and uncertain because we are supposed to--and she immediately went in on me.  Like I'm telling you, she said that because we are human--we are flesh, we get scared--which is very true. By that time, I was crying, because at that moment, I needed that word from Him; God knows us and what we need--He promises to supply them, right? I then realized before she could say it, we can have fear and faith--its just we have to believe in God and not doubt His word because He gave us proof--The Bible!  We must trust God and know that what He told us will come true.

 

Trusting God trumps being afraid any day if you believe and have faith. God's promises and His word do not return void.  Its a guaranteed investment.

 

"So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."  Isaiah 55:11