Is your faith weak? Are you perplexed because your faith doesn't seem to get results? Have you diligently prayed about a request and believed for it with all your heart and it didn't happen? Even worse, the very opposite happened? A loved one was not healed. The desire of your heart was not granted - at least, not to your satisfaction. The miracle you needed has not yet come. Time drags on, and the problems are still there.
Jesus ordered His disciples into a boat that was headed for a collision. The Bible says He "constrained them to get into a ship..." It was headed for troubled waters; it would be tossed about like a bobbing cork; the disciples would be thrust into a mini-Titanic experience - and Jesus knew it all the time.
"And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away" (Mat 14:22).
We love to quote Jesus’ words about the victory he has promised to his church: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Paul says Christ loves his church, and that it will be presented to him in the last days sanctified and washed by the Word, a glorious bride without spot, wrinkle or blemish of any kind (see Ephesians 5:25-27). Simply put, the church of Jesus Christ at the end of time will be a glorious, prevailing, overcoming body of believers. And we can stand on this as a promise from the Lord himself.
Jesus foresaw a crisis of belief when he asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8, NKJV). Our Lord knew many would lose their faith in the last days. Paul spoke of this as well, writing, “The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). In fact, Paul warned Timothy to hold fast to his faith because so many believers “concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck” (1:19).
We are all familiar with the story of David and Goliath. It is a tale of God's chosen man facing down a giant enemy and defeating him. To me, it is one of Scripture's clearest illustrations of the triumphant Christ.
In Mark 5 Jesus had just finished teaching in a seaside town and dismissed the crowd. Now he set his sights on a town called Gadara on the other side of the water. I believe that as soon as Christ set sail for that town, all of hell shuddered.
I want to talk to you about the subtle danger of a tendency common among many Christians. On the surface this tendency may seem harmless, but in reality it can cause shipwreck. I call this dangerous tendency the practice of "taking a step in the right direction."
Now, it is always good to take a step of faith when we have placed our trust in Christ. As a minister of the Lord, I applaud that kind of step. Yet the Bible shows us there is great danger if we don't follow up that first step with increased faith.
I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12, my italics).
Here are the words of a dying man. The apostle Paul was addressing his pupil, the young minister-in-training, Timothy. Later in the same letter, Paul confides to Timothy these difficult words: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (4:6-7).
The book of Revelation tells us that in the last days, Satan will rise up in anger and make war “with the remnant.” This remnant, of course, is the body of Christ, comprised of all “(who) keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
We in the church of Christ talk often about spiritual warfare. The war that is described in Revelation is a worldwide attack Satan has launched against the body of Christ: “It was given unto him to make war with the saints” (13:7).
This is a message for everyone who’s living under a burden of discouragement. As you look at your life, you’re despondent over failed expectations. You feel you haven’t accomplished much in life, and as time slips by you see that many promises have gone unfulfilled. For years you’ve prayed and prayed, but the things you believe God spoke to you haven’t come to pass. Other people around you seem to have it all together, enjoying the fulfillment of many promises, but you carry a sense of failure.
