Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.

One of the more hideous sources of doubt is an overreliance on our own insight. To be sure, the world encourages us to find true strength in our own wisdom born of knowledge and experience - even to boast of such things. But this only makes us self-righteous.

True wisdom is grounded in God's ordaining. And not all that the world puts forth as "wisdom" is so divinely rooted. Do our hearts trust God's wisdom, or do we rely only on our own insight?

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this contest between God's wisdom and the world's. The world considered the death of Christ on the cross to be a sign of weakness. But on the cross, Christ in God's wisdom is the strength that sets us free from the judgment of sin, death, and evil. We are thus graced with God's strength through Christ in the midst of all trials and sufferings. We get to share God's wisdom that love and lifts up one and all who are low and despised and rejected in this world. Trust rooted in the cross grasps the power and the wisdom of God. And a heart filled with Christ's promise has a greater foundation than anything in the world.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Matthew 14:31  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

When Jesus heard Peter's cry for help, he immediately grasped him and pulled him up, Matthew writes. This was an act of grace - the same grace that was extended in Jesus' outstretched arms on the cross for us all. But faith is that which grasps this grace. Faith means that we trust our Lord is there to save us. Faith is our having the promise of our Lord, even now.

In contrast to the boldness Peter often displayed, his faith in this moment is called little. And the reason for that contrast is because of Peter's obvious doubt that the presence of Jesus is mightier than the power of the wind and waves. How much do we also suffer such "little faith" now and then?

Still, through Christ, we come to understand that it is not the size of our faith that matters but the object of our faith: Jesus Christ. It is he who rescues us from our sure and certain doom in order to give us a sure and certain hope through his death and resurrection.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

James 1:7-8  For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Doubt betrays us. It leaves us with only one message: You are on your own. And when it inflicts hardship on our lives, it makes us "double-minded and unstable" people. To be double-minded means we say we trust, but we go on worrying in fear. It means that we may say one thing but do another. That makes us worrisome hypocrites, leaving us ensnared in the isolation of our own lives. You are on your own.

Peter was double-minded in his struggle between faith and fear. He boldly thought that he could walk on water as hie Lord did and even started out doing so. But when his eyes caught the wind and waves, he was filled with only doubts and began to sink. So, in the midst of his fear, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30). And the Lord saved him.

Do we trust that the Lord will save us? Our doubts tells us that we can't expect to receive anything from the Lord? But our doubts have surely betrayed us. In truth we know just how far the Lord will go. He will go into the depth of the sea for us, even into the depths of hell itself. That is where his cross is planted. That is where our eyes look, once again, in faith.

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James 1:6  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Our relationship with God is founded on our trust in Christ's promise that God will be there for us. But when we are filled with doubt, we lack faith. And when we lack faith, or trust, we are "like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by wind." We are out of control! And so, we fear and panic in our doubts, in the midst of the storms of life.

Jesus instructed his disciples to go on ahead in the boat through the sea to the other side while he stayed behind to pray. But their boat got hit by the wind and waves of a storm, and they were far from land. Even when Jesus came for them in the midst of the storm, they could not see him for who he was. They thought he was a ghost, adding to their existing fear of death and doom. But Jesus did not leave them in fear. "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid," he said (Matthew 14:27).

"Taking heart" means casting aside our doubts and fear, however much they are present with us in the storms of life. We look to Jesus in every scary scenario. Jesus risked everything for our well-being, even death on the cross. He is with us. Do not be afraid!

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1 Peter 1:20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.

You are not an afterthought. From your birth to your death, God is looking out for you. God's plan in Christ is "destined before the foundation of the world" to save us. Through the grace of God, there is the trust that Christ's death and resurrection are for your sake. Christ is the fulfillment of that destiny of promise and hope.

Our world is absorbed with other plans. And that is worse, it inflicts those plans upon us. Our life seems defined and controlled - even destined- toward its own goal of mere survival. Greed inflicts that solitary goal of making money until you die but gives you no freedom and no life. And greed does not sleep, nor does its evil master, Satan: "...like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

But through Christ, we have another destiny - indeed, a life-giving destiny! Christ is the Child of that new destiny. And through Christ we are children of a new destiny. For he sees us through the evils of this world, even death and all its judgment, taking that to the cross and giving us instead his gifts of life and freedom. Because of Christ, you have the destiny as your own through faith!

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

1 Peter 1:14  Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance.

We are children of God through Christ and his blood shed for us on the cross. Our new birth in Christ is ours through baptism and our trust in his promise of grace.

Our status as children means that our former dependence on the law no longer applies to us. We are free. And as children of God through Christ, we live in that freedom and the new obedience of faith.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we remind one another of the cross and the great price Christ paid for us there. By the power of the cross, we daily die to our old Adam (and old Eve) that clings so tightly to our mortal bodies, pressing us to turn back to old desires such as greed and its false illusion of power and success. Our power and success are not measured by such things, nor are we bound by them. We let go of that past ignorance, grasping instead the promising truth of the Gospel even as Christ has grasped us from death into life.

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1 Peter 1:13  Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.

While our salvation rests in Jesus Christ, the day of our final liberation is not yet at hand. As we walk through the wilderness of our world, we face many struggles and obstacles - even sufferings. Greed is one of those great barriers that can turn our eyes away from Christ and toward the temporary and fading wealth of this world.

"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" is an African American spiritual that empowered people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who, in the face of many of his own struggles and sufferings, would surely not have been able to carry on otherwise. But even in times of great despair, the hope of Christ picks us up, sustains us and moves us on in freedom toward his future of mercy, forgiveness and righteousness.

"Preparing our minds for action" means keeping our focus on Christ. It calls forth the discipline of faith and trust that, in spite of all our failings in life, God is there to uphold us and raise us up as he did with Christ. The crucified and risen Christ gives us hope!

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,