Numbers 30, Numbers 31: 1-24, Luke 8: 19-39, Psalm 55: 1-11
Luke 8: 25 (ESV)
“He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were
afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he
commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
In verse 25 from Luke 8, Jesus scolds his disciples for
their lack of faith when they awoke him because they were afraid of the storm.
Jesus and his discipled had gotten into a boat with Jesus telling them “Let us
go across to the other side of the lake.” In a Biblical commentary I read on this verse,
the author stated that Jesus had promised that they would go across to the other
side of the lake. The author noted that Jesus scolded his disciples for their
unbelief, when he had promised them that they would go to the other side of the
lake. This Biblical author made it clear that the difficult storms in life are
not evidence of unbelief; “Unbelief is the rejection of a promise or a command
of God relevant to a particular situation.” I think this definition of unbelief
makes it clear that having difficult situations come up in in your life doesn’t
mean you have an “unbelief”. Having an “unbelief” comes from when you hear the
Holy Spirit tell you everything is going to be alright, and you still have
doubts that what the Holy Spirit said is true. I find it so easy sometimes to
slip into “unbelief”, despite the fact that I have so much evidence in my life
that Holy Spirit is always right about everything. I have to keep remembering
that it is always my sinful nature that whispers doubts in my mind, like the serpent
in the Garden of Eden. That serpent never seems to shut up and I have to ask
the Holy Spirit for help every time. I sometimes feel such a sense of shame
that my doubts never go away, but that is what having a sinful nature is all
about – having a doubt-filled mind. I am so grateful that I have the Holy
Spirit to help me quiet the doubts long enough for me to see and experience the
daily miracles God gives me in my life.
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