HOE DEEP IS YOUR FAITH?(2).

*WISDOM FOR TODAY.*

*HOW DEEP IS YOUR FAITH? (2).*

*Scripture Treasure.*

Matt 14:28-30

*And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.*

*And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.*

*But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.*

*Insight and Highlight.*

The faith you refuse to use will soon become faithless.

*Scripture Commentaries.*

Faith is inactive until it is applied.

The story of Peter in Matt 15: 28-30 teaches us how faith can momentarily fail or shift.

One moment of faith may not guarantee faith in the next moment when focus on Jesus is shifted.

The story identifies key situations that could make faith become ineffective.

The boisterous wind, the stormy win, etc, which was not present when Peter began to walk on water suddenly happened, and a once active faith totally faded away.

Winds, storms, etc. can shift our faith and focus on Jesus.

Jesus would not tell Peter to come unto the water he would later sink in.

Jesus was teaching us in this story how powerful and safe faith can be in the most unpredictable situations such as the sea that may be calm in one moment and be stormy in another moment.

In the story of Jesus in the boat and when he fell asleep, it was not the storms that woke Him up. It was the lack of faith of the disciples that woke Him up, Matt 8:23-27, Mk 5: 35-41.

Fear steals faith and may fade it away if we are careless to maintain and sustain it.

Jesus asked Peter to come. It was an invitation to faith in Jesus, which teaches us that faith does not act on its own. There is an enabling divine grace that gives it power to work in us.

Phillipians 2:13 says *it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.*

The enabling divine grace behind it is why it is a gift.

Faith must be carefully guided. It must be exercised and put to use. It is a command, and without it, we can not claim or profess to trust God.

The bible is a book of faith. By faith, all that we see around us was created, Heb 11:3.

The moment Abraham shifted focus, his faith momentarily failed, Gen 16.

While God's call on him to sacrifice Isaac was to test him, his obedience became one of the foundations upon which faith thrived, Gen 22.

His focus was on God, and he was counted righteous for believing God, Rom 3:4-5.

Faith makes the invisible, visible. It makes the unbelievable, believable. It makes the unreal, real.

How deep is your faith?

*Remorse corner.*

Be encouraged. Faith does not walk alone.

When you have faith, there is a divine grace that is behind it.

*Call to Word action.*

To have faith in what you can only believe but with no evidence or hard proof that it would happen is not ordinary but extraordinary. It is not physically normal but supernatural.

*The Christian clarion duty.*

Faith works when focus is not shifted from Christ.

*Prayer.*

Lord, let me not shift focus from You. Deepen my faith as l have faith in You, in Jesus name.

Good morning all, and have a blessed day.

God bless you.

Shalom.