Little Faith
God never honors fear. He always honors faith. The job of the Holy Spirit is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The gospel is both good news and bad news. The Sermon on the mount is disturbing to men of this world.
The beatitudes are Jesus’ call to change attitudes…. From the attitudes of complaining about the affliction of this world unto God’s blessed beautiful attitudes. Jesus said, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
Jesus said to the multitude, consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field… If God clothes the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, will he not much more take care of your needs… O ye of little faith. If our faith is believing in our own ability, then we are men of little faith. Jesus said, who can by worrying add even one cubit to his height?
After Jesus had ministered to the multitudes in Mark 4, he said to his disciples, let’s get into the boat and go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they were crossing, a violent storm arose. Even though some of the disciples were seasoned fishermen, their boat filled with water and they thought they would drown. Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep in the stern. They woke him up and said, “Sir, don’t you care if we perish?” Mark 4:39-40 says, “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”
In the book of Daniel, Belshazzar, king of Babylon was having a drunken banquet with a thousand of his governors, their wives and concubines. He decided to pour wine into the sacred temple vessels that his father had taken from the temple at Jerusalem. As Belshazzsr’s guests drank the wine and continued their drunken debauchery, the figure of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the wall of the banquet hall…..”Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.”
We are all sinners… we all have inherited the sin nature from Adam’s original sin. The wages of sin is death. In our own power we cannot balance the scales of God’s righteous judgement. Everyone is weighed in the balance and found wanting… no man is worthy of life eternal.. However, Jesus Christ who was without sin paid the price to balance the scales of our debt of sin.
There are four responses to the invitation to come to Christ for salvation. The first response is outright rejection. Atheists and those who worship the things of this world ridicule and reject outright Jesus’ invitation for salvation.
The second category is those who attend church, but have never made a commitment to accept salvation on God’s terms. They remain lukewarm regarding the message of salvation. They may have accepted Christ but have not committed to Jesus Christ as a disciplined follower. These are the ones whom Jesus said, O ye of little faith. They do not back up their faith with believing action in obedience to Jesus Christ.
The third category is those who think they are saved but they really are not. They believe in a works-based salvation and think that their self-righteous life will earn them entry into the kingdom of heaven.
The fourth category is those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. As Jesus said, my sheep know my voice and they know me, and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life.
The devil distracts people to focus on their own pain… on how others have offended them and hurt them. The devil makes men of this world focus on their victim-hood. Victims remain angry and resentful because of the pain and tribulation that afflicts them daily.
Jesus said, think about the birds and the flowers…. They don’t toil in the field or spin thread to make their clothes. Yet God takes care of them… they thrive and are arrayed with beauty more splendid than King Solomon in his royal regalia. If God so provides for the fowl of the air and the lilies of the field, will he not much more provide for you, O ye of little faith?
Consider the Lord who promises to uphold you with the right hand of his mighty power. Will He not provide for your every need? Jeremiah 1 says, “Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. 9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the affairs and the cares of this world. How did Jesus respond? What would Jesus do? According to Hebrews 12, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. His joy was God’s revelation of your redemption and mine.
How do we overcome being of “little faith?” Proverbs 3 says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding… in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Our identity is not in our ancestry, our accomplishments, our physical characteristics, or the accolades and praise of others. God does not see us according to our flesh…. Our earthly nature. Instead, when we are born again of God’s Holy Spirit as sons of God, we are what the Word of God says we are, not what the world says we are…
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption… the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry Abba Father, or Daddy, Daddy…. If God be for us who can be against us? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or trial or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Nay, In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
We were the elect of God in God’s foreknowledge… From his eternal perspective, we were seated in heavenly places before the foundation of the world. We have confidence in the day of judgement… for in Christ we shall be judged righteous… not because of who we are but because who he is.. for he who knew no sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God In him.
When we are born again of God’s spirit, We are not “O ye of little faith.” We have received the “measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). It is the faith of Jesus Christ…. God’s Holy Spirit, Christ in you the hope of glory. Therefore, I know whom I have believed and am pursuaded that he is able to keep that Holy Spirit which he has committed unto me against that day of righteous judgement…
… that according to the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, we should ever live in eternity to the praise of the glory of God’s grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
