'...the devil took [Jesus] up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"'
Matthew 3:5-7 (NKJV)
I find myself wondering if I have that sort of faith, that I could stand atop the Cathedral and throw myself off knowing that I would not dash my foot against the ground. Whats more do I have the faith not to need to throw myself off, trusting that it is true? For it is all well and good to say unto myself that I shouldn't test God because what happens if it goes wrong. Its all very well to say that I have the faith to walk into the lions den but quite another not to need to because not a doubt assails my mind. It is all very well to say that I have the faith to say 'I believe in God' whilst staring down the barrel of a gun, but in my mind I ask myself how I would truly respond. Sometimes I think I don't know what my response would be until I stand in that situation and yet to know my response beforehand so that I don't need to place myself in that situation. The kind of faith that trusts so completely in God that it needs not test Him.
Again in Matthew 17:20 (NKJV), Jesus says '...if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.' Could I look at Mt Cook and command it to move and see it move. Dare I raise my hand to the west and command thusly?
Does my inherent skepticism deny faith?
'Lord I believe; help my unbelief.' - Mark 9:24 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"'
Matthew 3:5-7 (NKJV)
I find myself wondering if I have that sort of faith, that I could stand atop the Cathedral and throw myself off knowing that I would not dash my foot against the ground. Whats more do I have the faith not to need to throw myself off, trusting that it is true? For it is all well and good to say unto myself that I shouldn't test God because what happens if it goes wrong. Its all very well to say that I have the faith to walk into the lions den but quite another not to need to because not a doubt assails my mind. It is all very well to say that I have the faith to say 'I believe in God' whilst staring down the barrel of a gun, but in my mind I ask myself how I would truly respond. Sometimes I think I don't know what my response would be until I stand in that situation and yet to know my response beforehand so that I don't need to place myself in that situation. The kind of faith that trusts so completely in God that it needs not test Him.
Again in Matthew 17:20 (NKJV), Jesus says '...if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.' Could I look at Mt Cook and command it to move and see it move. Dare I raise my hand to the west and command thusly?
Does my inherent skepticism deny faith?
'Lord I believe; help my unbelief.' - Mark 9:24 (NKJV)
2 Comments:
Those sorts of questions are hard. You know what you should answer but you probably also think you know what you would answer and would ans should often aren't the same.
I'm just quite thankfully for the last line "You shall not tempt/test the Lord your God" which clearly lets us know it's not something we should acctually try to test our faith with!
With regards to the mustard seed I kind of think that that sort of faith is humanly unachivable. It's making something that is not physical for humans physical. Eg a modern day equiv might be "Matter = Energy (E = MC^2)" therefore you should be able to take Energy and make Matter yet we can't do it becuase it's to hard it requires an amount of energy far beyond our current capabilities to control.
If you can make sence of the above your doing well people!
Concerning the mustard seed faith/ moving the mountain verse, I’ve always considered that though we may require the faith to do something, the power comes from God if the request is acceptable in his eyes.
For example, if I looked at a mountain and commanded it to move over so that I could build a golf course, God would probably say something like, “No, that’s my mountain, I like it where it is, build your golf course someplace else.”
Whereas if I commanded the mountain to move over as a testimony to a stubborn unbeliever, God would probably say something like, “Ok then, but this person only needs to see a landslide, and besides, that cult community on the east slope annoys me.”
Anyway, it’s probably more of a metaphorical mountain, ie: a seemingly overwhelming obstacle in our lives.
So we don’t just need faith, but also the wisdom and right heart motive to know what to have faith in.
Post a Comment
<< Home