"Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." (John 10:24 KJV)
"We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient." (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NLT)
By now, it should be plain to see that these Jews really don't care what Jesus says to prove anything; they are more interested in Him giving them something tangible to use against Him, that they might prove that He is claiming the Christ. Little do they realize, that is who He is, but their eyes can't see, nor their hearts receive the truth!
Pastor Bryan mentioned that certain fact about the distance between belief and unbelief, that it is about eight-teen inches, which is the average distance between the human heart and the mind. If we could only just believe and try not to figure everything out! We say, "I believe God can do this," and then we set out trying to figure how He can do it, if He will do it, and then we don't believe much will happen at all!
The point to this was based upon the example given in Mark 2:2-5, which shows the faith of four men that lowered their friend down from a roof, so that Jesus might heal their paralyzed friend. The point being, that they lowered him down, which was fairly easy; not thinking about having to lift him back up, because they believed Jesus would heal him, and he would walk out on his own.
In my world, call it stupid or foolish, I am constantly trying to figure out how God will provide the money needed to put in the bank, just to cover the checks that I have already written. I am one of those people that tries to pay my bills on time, even if there might not be the funds available to do so.
For those that might not know, God has an abundant number of ways to provide for what we need, but He wants us to give our tithes and offerings first! For Him, the tithe is important, not that He needs it, but we need to faithfully give it, first and foremost, without even questioning resources or abilities for anything else.
That is where those 18" of doubt get me all messed up! Not that I cannot see, because I have seen, all of the times He has worked all things out before, but I sometimes doubt He will do it again. Call it foolishness, that's alright, because I have been called foolish before; and I'm pretty sure that I will be called foolish again!
In the matter of finances, I prefer to allow God to handle all the technical stuff; technical being the stuff that really matters! I am just a vessel, and I pray that I am useful! We must always, "Trust God, and lean not on your own understanding"...
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." (Philippians 4:4 KJV)
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