The Obstacle of Unbelief
After five long years of disappointment, I was finally pregnant. I was on Cloud 9 and wanted to shout the good news from the rooftops! We could hardly contain our excitement. But our joy was short-lived. My long-awaited pregnancy resulted in miscarriage. It didn’t make sense. It would have been easier to never get pregnant in the first place. I wondered why God denied me the privilege of another child when it seemed others were allowed to abort, abuse or abandon theirs.
I admit my faith was shaken to the core. You may think you’re pretty solid in your beliefs until a crisis takes places, and you wonder where God is in the midst of your pain. But I had to go back to the truth upon which I had built my life. God was for me, not against me. He would work everything out for my good. He would never leave or forsake me. I held on to the Only One who could help me through the pain, even when I knew He could have prevented it. That’s what faith is all about.
Read Habakkuk 2:4
1. What truth is stated in this verse?
Read Matthew 17:14-21
2. Why does a man in the crowd come and kneel before Jesus?
3. Which words of Jesus show his frustration with the disciples? What does Jesus do next?
4. For what reason did Jesus say the disciples were unable to heal the boy? Do you think Jesus was criticizing or training them?
5. What truth does Jesus give them about faith? What stands out to you in this verse?
6. What is the result of genuine faith? How does this speak to you in your present circumstances?
The disciples wanted to cast out the demon, while Jesus wanted to cast out their unbelief. There is power in even the smallest, undeveloped seed of faith. The power of God plus our faith moves mountains. Scripture declares that nothing is impossible when we believe. I recently read that a life of faith is not one of understanding and reason, but of knowing the One who leads us. Living by faith is not a series of mountaintop experiences but one of consistency in the everyday mundane circumstances of life…even in disappointment. If you’re facing an immovable mountain today, take your eyes off the problem and look to Jesus. That’s the beginning of genuine faith.
This verse states that the just shall live by GOD’S faith – serving the LORD is a wonderful time of anyone’s life – I gave my heart to the LORD when I was eleven years old and have been serving the LORD everyday – YES – I made mistakes – but the LORD is so quick to forgive each one of us and we learn from the mistakes. This makes each one of us have more and more FAITH in the LORD and serve HIM with all of our lives. The man came and kneeled before the LORD because others could not help him with his son – sometimes we ask everyone else except the LORD for our help and we each one should put our trust in the LORD first of all. The LORD told his disciples they were a faithless generation and why should I be with you so long – other words where your faith that I have taught each one of you is. JESUS said to bring the man unto me and JESUS rebuked the devil out of the man and the child was cured from that moment. I do not think JESUS was criticizing the disciples – Jesus was trying to train them in the work of the LORD and show them their mistakes – we need this every once in a while from the LORD – you and I need to be trained and told how to do things in the LORD – It really was because of their faith the disciples could not cast the Devil out – I love the verse about having a grain of mustard seed and seeing mountains moved by the hand of the LORD – Nothing is impossible for us to do as long as we have faith in the power of GOD – We can do all things through the NAME OF JESUS – we only have to use the faith and scripture – GOD will always be there for each one of us. And I love the word fasting also – Prayer – Fasting – Faith.
I love the last words of this lesson – take our eyes off the problems we are having and loot to JESUS – that is where our FAITH starts – IN THE NAME OF JESUS. Love this lesson – Karen – another great one and points to ponder during the week. THANK YOU
Thank you for the post.