Your confidence in God’s love and power must be able to take you through the storms of life.

Question #3 “Do you believe I can do this?” Matthew 9:28 NIV  

“You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31 NIV

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God is serious about gaining our trust … to truly believe that He is trustworthy.

God’s patience with our learning curve is astounding. Consider Israel, newly released from slavery to the Egyptian’s. God leads them through the Red Sea on dry ground, then drowns their pursuers as the water rushes back in to fill their escape route.

Shortly thereafter the people complained about missing their favorite foods from their days of slavery. “You brought us out here just to starve us to death,” they complained to Moses. God again showed his power over the circumstances of their lives and provided them daily food in the form of manna.

Even with these powerful evidences of God’s care and provision, as soon they moved down the road and their water supply appeared to be insufficient, they said, “Is God here with us, or not?” Exodus 17:7 The Message

There are times in all of our lives when resources aren’t enough … when strength seems inadequate … when troubling questions are unanswered – and we inwardly ponder the same question. “Is God here with us, or not?”

God in extremely interested in the answer we come up with!

It really isn’t about resource, strength or answers in short supply. It’s always about God testing our ‘trust level’ and our response to that testing.

• If He said He would give strength to the weary (Isaiah 40:29), do we believe He will?
• If He said there is no need to fear because He is with us (Isaiah 41:10), can we trust Him?
• If his promise is that He will go before us and be with us (Deuteronomy 31:8), can we depend on that?
• If his Word declares that He will meet all of our needs (Philippians 4:19), can we rest on that Word?
• If we’re told we can walk through the darkest valley without fear (Psalm 23:4), can his nearness at those times really be enough?
• If He said we could trust the future of our kids who we’ve trained to follow him (Proverbs 22:6), can we believe it in the face of evidence to the contrary?
• If He has declared that He is able to work all things in our lives out for our good (Romans 8:28), dare we draw back in unbelief and wonder “Is God here with us, or not?”

This week allow God to challenge any vestige of unbelief or wavering confidence.

“ …when the Son of Man comes, will he find men on earth who believe in him?”

Luke 18:8 Phillips Translation

Next week’s question: Question #4 “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15