Verse of the Day 8/31

Through the Bible - Psalms 146-148, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

 

Good morning,

A friend of mine recently saw a couple of hand written signs as he drove along the highway which stated "no matter what, trust God".  When he returned home later that day and got off the highway he saw the same sign outside of a local restaurant.  The phrase stuck with him as it has stuck with me since Sunday.   What exactly is involved in that kind of trust?

 

Yesterday's verse involved hope.  Regarding the hope in Romans 8:24-25 commentator James Dunn writes, "the phrase ('saved in hope') is not meaningless, precisely because hope for Paul was not something tentative. Hope was rather something assured, based on what had been done in Christ (Rom. 5: 6-10; Rom. 8: 3, 11) and on what they themselves had already experienced through the Spirit (Rom. 5: 5; Rom. 8: 2, 9-10, 15-16, 23). So, to use the past tense ('saved') was not inappropriate, so long as the incompleteness of the process was not lost to sight. It is the combination of assurance and hope which makes the waiting a matter of eager longing."

 

Faith and hope and trust are intertwined and together they can grow inside of us, in our hearts and produce fruit in our lives. For today's verse we'll go to Matthew 17 where the disciples had been unable to cast a demon out of a person.  After much previous success they were confused and couldn't understand why they couldn't drive it out.

 

Matthew 17:20 (Amplified Bible)  He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

 The seed of the mustard plant is the smallest of the garden seeds, almost invisible and easily overlooked.  But if it is planted in fertile soil, from the smallest beginnings it will grow to be one of the tallest plants in the garden.  So it can be with our faith.

 

John MacArthur writes, "but as He made clear in the parable of the mustard seed, the seed does not represent littleness as such, but rather littleness that grows into greatness.  "When it is full grown," He explained, "it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree." (Matt. 13;32).  Small faith can accomplish great things only if, like a mustard seed, it grows into something greater than it

was.  Only when small faith grows into great faith can it move a mountain."

 

All too often we read these verses and expect God to move mountains without turning to Him in the "small things", which require little faith.

 

MacArthur continues, "mustard seed faith is persistent faith.  It continues to grow and become productive because it never gives up."

 

What is the condition of  your faith today.  May it grow, become more productive and may it never give up.

 

Read the passage from The Message below.  May we follow the advive and take God seriously.

Blessings,
Mike

mikevw@bellsouth.net
mikesvotd.blogspot.com

With a Mere Kernel of Faith

Matthew 17:  ^14-16At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, "Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him."

 ^17-18Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here." He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.

 ¹⁹When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, "Why couldn't we throw it out?"

 ²⁰"Because you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle."   The Message