FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
GOD LOVES FAITH
Our Lord Jesus teaches powerful truths many times through His criticisms of His disciples, like in this case:
Matthew 17:14-18 NASB
“When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed at once.”
The truth Jesus teaches through His criticism of the Disciples is: “I Love it when my people trust me!” Our faith in God delights Him, thrills Him, and pleases Him so much.
Read the Gospels through again, well, one of them at least, and see how many times Jesus is displeased with His disciples because He’d done so many miracles right under their noses and they had seen them and then they didn’t trust Him when something else went wrong and they needed help! They had significant, even pathological trust issues. And Jesus was upset.
And I get it.
I mean, if my kids don’t trust that I will do something for them when I say I will do something for them, and they feel the need to remind me over and over and over again or act fearfully like I’m probably NOT going to come through…well, it irks me! Hey I raised you guys! I’ve bled dollars for you guys! I’ve given you my blood sweat and tears and no I’m not a martyr but I’d definitely die for you and you don’t trust that I’ll come through for you!??? It ticks me off and amps me up just thinking about this as a for instance!
Calm down Pete. Calmer.
I wonder, with God being perfect and perfectly in control how He feels about it when we don’t trust Him. Well, you’re right, Jesus shows us. It exasperates Him!
God is our Father and fathers love to be trusted.
So we should and can grow in faith, if nothing else but to give praise and honor to our Great Father and Lord Jesus Christ!
How do we grow in faith?
- Reading the Word of God builds faith. Romans 10:17
- Praying specifically for certain issues and people and keeping a record of the outcomes.
- Hanging out with other growing men (like at FORGE), and asking them to help you trust God more. (God will answer that prayer. See I John 5:14-15)
- Worshiping God with other Christians and hearing their stories builds your faith.
- Reading biographies of strong Christians of the past and seeing how God came through for them (Here’s a good one: Martin Luther, by Eric Metaxas).
- Reading Church History and seeing how the Church has survived even amidst horrible failure and persecution (The Triumph of Christianity by Rodney Stark is great!)
Well, those are some ways we can grow in faith. God loves it when we have it!
Great men as God defines greatness were first ordinary men, who learned to trust an extraordinary God.
With you in the journey and adventure to grow in trusting our great God!
You take it to heart,
Pete Alwinson
