AFRAID
"What are you afraid of? And where is your faith?"
Even though we left our #SFHome in January, and we love our new church family in Houston, I still listen to the podcast sermons from RealitySF. If you listen to a few of them, you'll quickly learn that Pastor Dave's favorite book is Mark. In the podcast "Understanding Evil", Pastor Dave ran through a list of headings in the book following Jesus stilling the storm. For reference, it goes like this:
Jesus stills the storm (Mark 4:35-41)
Jesus restores a demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20)
Jesus raises a dead girl and heals a sick woman (Mark 5:21-43)
He speaks and stills a storm, then asks His disciples: "What are you afraid of? And where is your faith?"
In the following verses, He goes on to show that He has power not only over nature, but over evil. He frees a man of demon possession, and heals the social evils that the town has committed against him by tying him up and casting him out to live in the outskirts like an animal. He heals a woman who has been sick, ostracized, and only gotten worse. Then He steps into a room where a child has died and defeats death.
What are you afraid of? And where is your faith?
As I said last week, I struggle with uncertainty, and I felt the words Jesus spoke to His disciples being spoken into my heart. What are you afraid of? And where is your faith?
Reader, our hope and faith is built not on what God will do, but what He HAS done. We believe that He will continue to be faithful, because He has always been faithful. The past is our source of hope for the future.
I hope that this encourages you today, and that when God whispers to you "What are you afraid of? And where is your faith?" you can respond with "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief" and look to the past, see what He has done, and have hope for what He will do again.
