This morning three questions have come to my mind straight from the scripture. One is a question we ask the Lord repeatedly in our life times. The other two questions come from the Lord to us.
The question we ask comes from [Mark 4:38] "... Don't you care ...?" You can fill in the blank at the end of that question with many things. Lord, don't you care that we do not have enough money? Don't you care that our health is failing? Don't you care that our jobs are on the line? Don't you care that my marriage is in trouble, my child is running from you, my faith is feeble, and my love for you is cooling?
We all have our own set of questions. We all have our set of questions wondering why the Lord delays or denies our requests. We convince ourselves that the Lord does not care because of our circumstances. We convince ourselves that the Lord is not concerned with our plight. We question, whine, and despair. Our question is based on faulty logic. It denies the reality of scripture.
God's care was forever settled on the cross where Jesus purchased our redemption. We can never question that God does not care. He forever put that issue to rest. On top of that there are numerous assurances in the Bible that God loves us [Rom 5:8], never leaves us [Heb 13:5], comforts us [Ps 34:18], strengthens us [Phil 4:13], gives us peace [Phil 4:7], lifts our burdens [Ps 55:22], and provides refuge [Ps 46:1].
That is our question. The Lord has two questions for us in [Mark 4:40]. First, Why are you afraid? It means why are you a coward, timid, faithless? What are you afraid of? For some it is having enough to retire on. For others it is the fear of the unknown. There are some who fear disease and death itself. Fear is a crippling emotion. It can paralyze people into inaction. It can keep people up at night tormented in their minds.
God is asking you to identify the source of your fear. For the disciples it was a storm and the thought of drowning. For you and I it is something totally different.
Now for the third question and the second one from Jesus to us. Do you still have no faith? Notice that the question does ask why we have little faith. Jesus' question to the disciples and to us is why do we not any faith. He asks, do you still have no faith? No faith. That means none at all. What I find in my life is that when I have no faith it usually leads me to living in fear.
God does care. We have to keep believing in Him and His goodness and not allowing fear to cripple us. It is that simple. No matter what we are going through we have the choice to trust Him and live in peace rather than fear. Yes, Jesus cares. Yes we have the choice to trust or doubt and yes we have the choice to live in fear or to live in peace.
Three questions. God, do you care? God ask us these two questions. Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? God already has given the answer to our question. Now what answers do we have for His two questions. Why are we afraid? Do we still have no faith?
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