A Little Bible Q & A For Your Day

Viewed: 1456

Date: Oct 21 2016 9:44 AM

Hey Everybody,

I hope things are going good for you this week.

For today, here is a little Q & A!

The Question:

Dear Brother: Jesus performed many miracles, and personally taught the apostles a great deal about Himself. Why, then, did the apostles show such doubt and unbelief? As I consider all the apostles experienced, yet doubted, how can I expect to grow an acceptable faith today?

The Answer:

It is true that the apostles did not always act with assurance of faith. One example is when they were on the Sea of Galilee, and the Lord came walking on the water (Matt. 14). They thought He was a ghost, but He spoke to them, and Peter said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matt 14:28-31). Peter believed strongly enough to step over the side of the boat! Would we have had that much faith? But the storm caused him to become alarmed, " O you of little faith."

The apostles saw Jesus heal all manner of sick who were brought to Him (Mark 1:32-34). Jesus cured the lepers, restored sight to the blind, made the deaf to hear, etc. How, then, could the apostles doubt? The answer is simple: "The same way we can doubt!" For us, "Faith comes by hearing the word of God" (Rom. 10:17), and the miracles which the apostles saw are recorded for us in the written word. Why are they written? " These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). We have the same miracles to "confirm the word" (Mark 16:20) which they had. They observed the miracles and recorded them in writing, with witnesses, for us.

How do we grow a strong faith then? Study the word of God! The more we read, study and meditate on His word, the stronger our faith in God and in Jesus, His Son, will become. We would like to think that if we had been in the shoes of the apostles, we would have believed and never doubted. But I really question that. I seriously doubt that very many of us would be stronger than such men as Peter and John! What they saw done was completely outside the realm of human experience, so they had difficulty comprehending it. The miracles Jesus did are still contrary to physics and biology, as man understands those subjects. But we have the evidence, so we believe. But, in spite of our best efforts, we still are much like the man who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

I hope this helps.

Have a great weekend!

Mitch Robison

Enon Church of Christ

1366 Enon Road

Webb, AL 36376

[email protected]

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