And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:31 KJV

The NLT reads, “why did you doubt me”. 

 

Doubt from Strong's #1365 distazo means to stand in two ways ( dis” double” stasis “a standing”) implying uncertainty which way to take. It is used in Matthew 14:31 and again in Matthew 28:17 of believers whose faith is small. 

I’ve been writing about endurance lately and this scripture addresses the moments that we are beginning to shift in our position while we wait.  The Gospel of Matthew describes Peter as “beginning to sink”.  How do you begin to sink?  I think it is the expression of beginning to shift our position of absolute confidence in God to reasoning in our circumstances. The Book of James calls it a “double minded man”.  When Peter saw, he began to sink.  

The only way we are not moved, not double minded and unstable in all our ways, is to continually feed upon the promise God has given. We do not allow them to depart from our sight.  We meditate on them day and night.  They must be the daily bread we feed on as we wait upon God. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 

 In Luke chapter one, Gabriel is sent from the presence of God to speak and preach to Zechariah about the son he will have in answer to his prayer.  Luke describes Zechariah as a righteous man and blameless, yet he asks Gabriel to prove this word.   Gabriel strikes him dumb UNTIL the day these thing take place because he did not believe the words “which shall be fulfilled in their time.”   In contrast, we find Mary who was blessed because she believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.  

The word God sends out always accomplishes its purpose. It has it’s own timetable for fulfillment.  There are many words we send out but God’s word never fails. God watches over HIS word to perform it.  Has he not said it and will he not do it?  God can’t lie.  It is impossible for God to lie.  Let us remember the word must be spoken to us before it can be spoken through us. The bible is not a wish book.  We don’t randomly choose scriptures that feed our personal desires and just begin confessing them.  We take the time to allow the Holy Spirit to make the written word (logos) our spoken word (Rhema) and that word never fails. 

When God speaks our job is to simply agree and then continually feed upon His promise as we wait for the word to be fulfilled in its time. 

There shall be a fulfillment of those things promised. 

Don’t give up.