Tuesday Reading: Matthew 13:58
Key Verse: Matthew 13:58
58 And He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Devotion:
Christ wants us to believe in Him. He wants us to be able to demonstrate our faith by trusting Him instead of our own wants and desires. Christ wants us to know what faith is, to know that faith is real and true. If we do not have faith then we are telling Christ that we do not believe all that He has done for us. Our being Christians means that we have had faith enough to believe that Christ died for our sins and that we need to ask Him to forgive us of those sins.
If we are calling ourselves Christians because of something that we have seen or because of something that we have said or that has been said to us, then we are sadly mistaken. Being a Christian means having faith in Christ, believing that what He has done was real and that we have His forgiveness when we ask for it. If we are basing our Christianity on what others have said or done for us then we are not in a personal relationship with Christ – we have not accepted the personal covenant that Christ wants to make with each one of us who is willing to believe in the unseen.
Christ was able to know when the people around Him did not have real faith and because of that He withheld His miracles. He did not want to have a bunch of people believing Him just because He was able to do miracles! How many times do we see Christ saying to the person He heals that they should not go and tell everyone about what has happened. The disciples even say that there are not enough books in the world to contain all the things that Christ did. Christ wants us to have faith and not just believe because we have seen a miracle! Christ wants us to know Him first so that we can get to love Him in a similar manner in which He loves us. When we have that love we can then understand just how much He has accomplished for us and believe that all the things He has said will come to pass! Christ wants us to have faith and not to just believe what we see.
Points to Ponder:
What does it take for you to believe something?
DO you need visible evidence before you believe in Christ?
