I chose this chapter without knowing the title but boy, did this hit home!! The definition given for doubt is "to stand in two ways"; while unbelief is rendered disobedience.
Pastor Mike prayed this past Sunday rebuking doubt in our minds, rebuking our minds from wavering between two opinions. God has given each of us a measure of faith but as stated by Joyce Meyer "the devil tries to negate our faith by attacking us with doubt".
We must be grounded and rooted in the Word so when the lies or things opposite of what God has said comes, we can stand with confidence, knowing what God has promised.
What really stuck with me in this chapter is Peter walking on water. When Jesus spoke, Peter got out the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. While walking, Peter felt a strong wind and got scared, lost focus on Jesus and began sinking. But when he got back in the boat, the winds stopped.
In my natural life, I saw just that with me! The Lord speaks a word and I am "out the boat" walking towards Jesus. The winds start blowing, (not every wind would scare me) but I encountered some boisterous winds and doubt immediately set in. I would say things like; "Lord, did you really say that?!", "Let me pray some more to be sure that's what you REALLY said God"; not realizing that the devil sends storms to intimidate us.
Unbelief leads to disobedience. I can see this plainly in natural life as well. I told my son when he was younger that if he touched the "eye" on the stove even though it was turned off, you can get burned because it takes time for the metal to cool. Well, because he didn't believe me completely, he touched it and got burned. He didn't realize that I had the overall picture of it, I was experienced enough to know when it could be touched or not. God has the overall picture! He has set different things for us to do, some to avoid because He has our best interest at heart! He doesn't withold from us or have us wait for nothing. It's something we should be doing and learning in the process.
My final point, is when she mentioned to learn to live from faith to faith and explained how she lived from faith to doubt to unbelief and then go back to faith a while. In doing that she had so much trouble and misery in her life (a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways). That made me think of the palm tree. The palm tree is very tall and they can endure hurricane strength winds and still stand. They can do so because their roots are as long as the tree is tall because it tries to get to a water source. Also, you can cut the palm tree and it not die! I want to be so grounded and close to the Source that when the storms come, I may bend and sway but won't break and even if I'm cut, I won't die because I'm living from faith to faith!
Ralphlia
Love this, Raphlia
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