"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)Jesus invites Peter to meet Him out on the water, at first Peter does fine but the further out Peter goes the deeper he sinks in to the water.
"And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:28-31)
Jesus is asking Peter "Why did you doubt?" Peter's response isn't recorded, the point is made regardless. Jesus is trying to show Peter he can do as Jesus does if only he has the faith to do it.
"And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you." (Luke 17:6)
The laws of nature will be bound to us as they are bound to God, because though God the Father will always be our God we can progress to a very close level. We have His attributes in embryo, His children will grow into adulthood to be like Him.
We can work the same miracles as Jesus or any Prophet like Moses if only we believe but not only belief in God but belief in ourselves.
If we doubt our own abilities we squander our potential.
We have to believe we are capable of the greatness that was seen in Prophets like Moses or Elijah, or in Jesus Himself.
We have an easier time, I think, having faith in others than we do having faith in ourselves to accomplish great and wonderful things.
The Apostles had all the faith in the world that Jesus could work miracles yet they themselves did not have the faith that they could work the same miracles.
"And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epilepticc]">[c] and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief;d]">[d] for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”e]">[e]
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e]">(Matthew 17:14-21)
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e]">Jesus is saying that fasting and prayer is how you grow close enough to God to nurture the faith that can work miracles. Spending time alone absorbed in the spirit allows you to feel the majesty of God and after enough time you may wield that majestic power for righteous purposes. Jesus says the only path to it is fasting and prayer.
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"But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:6-12)
Contentment with all things in your life is great gain. I think for most of us the lie we keep believing throughout our lives is that "If I can get ____ I will be happy."
But we brought no possessions with us into this world and we will take none with us so how can all this stuff, like a lexus, be all that important?
Jesus didn't have anything more than the clothes on His back and was perfectly content and happy because unlike so many of us He was content with what He did have. He knew He had the love of God and He extended that love to all so He was loved by many because of that divinely loving countenance.
The question is if Jesus says that the birds are taken care of by God and that we are so much more important to Him than them so we will never have to worry, do we believe Him?
When Jesus says the right way, the effective way to deal with those that hate you, that curse you, is to pray for them do we believe that loving our enemies will work? It worked when Gandhi tried it and when Dr.King tried but when have any of us really tried? When have any of us believed that loving your enemy is the way to go? If we believe Jesus is the Christ then why do we fail to believe in His all of His teachings?
If we don't believe every teaching of Christ how are we to know, how is anyone to know, how is Jesus to know we are Christian?
Faith and belief goes beyond simply believing in Jesus as our savior and believing in His teachings and believing that acting them out is the best way for everyone involved and we are all involved.
