Well it’s the weekend again Friends, so don’t forget fellowship in your short downtime of fun and frolic. I know that’s very easy to do, but if we want to grow in Christ, we need to congregate with others; we can’t do it just by ourselves, in a sort of vacuum. Now yesterday we saw how fear can strangle us, while suppressing it and emboldening ourselves with courage allows us to do even supernatural feats, such as walking on water, like Peter. But note, as soon as his fear returned and surpassed the intensity of his courage, he lost that ability, causing him to start sinking and fearfully calling out to Jesus to save him, which He did. And we also heard Jesus’ light rebuke: ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ (Mat.14:31) And right there is the crux of the whole problem people; the question of faith, which is closer to being the opposite of fear than courage, for it is faith that gives us the courage to overcome fear and all our obstacles in life. Peter’s faith was strong when he first stepped out of the boat, so he was enabled, but as soon as the reality of the situation really hit him, his faith quickly dissipated and his enormous fear returned, so he lost that ability. And so it usually is with us all in our many walks of life. When we staunchly believe, embrace a strong faith in Jesus, we are empowered to do many things. But likewise, when our faith is at low ebb, we find it difficult to accomplish any thing worthwhile, because we simply don’t believe we can do it, there isn’t that essence of reassurance within us that’s only placed there by strong, unwavering faith. And the next two verses of scripture paint an interesting picture. ‘And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.’ (Mat.14:32-33) The difference here is that the disciples believed and worshipped Jesus after, or because they saw Him walking on the water, and the strong winds immediately ceased after He entered the boat. I guess that’s faith in the sense that seeing is believing; once you see, then you believe. But according to Bruh Paul true ‘faith is the substance (realization) of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction) of things not seen.’ (Heb.11:1) If we have to see something before we believe it, then that’s not true faith. ‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’ (2 Cor.5:7) So one could argue that the disciples on the storm tossed sea didn’t abound in true faith, for it was only after they saw Jesus do things that an ordinary man couldn’t do (walk on water, still the wind) that they truly believed He was the Messiah. However, here is a true testimony of real faith. It deals with Bruh Paul, who had no dealings with Christ while he was on earth, but turned out to be one of the most faithful believers. After he’d been arrested in Jerusalem and brought before the Jewish Council, soldiers had to take him away to safety in a nearby castle for the crowd was ready to lynch him. ‘And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.’ (Acts 22:11) Now there was nothing for Bruh Paul to see, he just had to go on his gut feeling; the faith built up in him during his time of service to the Lord, and all the eventful situations that the Lord had safely guided him through. Then what happens? A young man overhears that a group of more than forty dissidents were plotting to lynch him when they took him back to the council and he warns Bruh Paul and the soldiers and other arrangements are made. (Acts 23:12-22) Again on Bruh Paul’s voyage to Rome, the ship encounters a terrible storm and it seems that they would all perish, but after a bout of fasting and prayer, he confronts the others on board, and says: ‘And now I exhort (urge) you to be of good cheer (take heart): for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night, the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.’ (Acts 27:22-25) Now that’s what you call faith my Friends! Bruh Paul believed that he would end up alive in Rome, regardless of the adversity along the way. My people, can we dial up that unwavering kind of faith when we’re faced with adversity? We should…well possibly not as much as Bruh Paul, because he was in a class all by himself, but we should surely be able to call up enough to stand strong in tough times, by remembering all the Lord’s done for us in the past, what He’s now doing and all His awesome promises for the future. If we can’t do that my people, then our faith isn’t serving us well, for that’s one of its most important purposes. It’s therefore necessary for us to build up our stock of faith if we want to endure as true believers, because it’s out faith that really makes us strong in times of tribulation. In fact we’re only as strong as our faith. The stronger it is, the better we can bear tribulation. The catch 22 situation though is that faith is built on the back of adversity; it needs adversity to strengthen it. However, don’t worry, as Jesus said; ‘Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.’ But we need to keep reading and meditating on His Word, talking to Him and storing His promises deep in our souls, so that when the trials do come, as they surely will, Jesus will be well entrenched in us, and we can calmly reassure ourselves and others: ‘Don’t be afraid; Jesus is here and he will certainly help us.’ Oh Friends, that’s the kind of mountain moving faith we need to aspire to, if we’re going to be successful in this ungodly, evil world. So let’s start seriously building it nuh! Much LOVE! …only faith can conquer fear…
SCRIP-BITS 