The Lies of Unbelief
Adapted and updated by Kelly Mowrer from Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, August 27
How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? Numbers 14:11 (NIV)
We must constantly be on guard against thoughts of doubt, worry, and anxiety--fighting them with all of our commitment and strength. Unbelief isn't something to shrug away as simply inevitable, or too strong to overcome.
Instead, we must immediately recognize that an attack from this enemy requires our most urgent opposition and our heart must be strongly defended against it. It so dishonors Christ that we will lose our sense of God's presence with us if we insult Him by giving it room to grow. Even though it's a weed that will keep coming back time and again, we must remove it and strike at it's root with all of our energy and perseverance.
Unbelief, doubt, worry, and anxiety are insidiously harmful and should be hated and feared as a most venomous poison.
For the child of God who has been treated with lavish mercy and overflowing blessings in the past, it is an even greater sin to doubt God in the present. A husband who has been only loving, faithful, and generously kind to his wife would feel great hurt to be always doubted by her.
This sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted. Jesus has never given us the slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to be doubted by those to whom we have only and always shown perfect love and care.
Jesus is the Son of the Highest, and has unbounded wealth; how shameful it is to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will be more than enough for our greatest needs, and the storehouses of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating.
If Christ were only a well, we might be able to drink it dry, but who can drain a fountain? Countless children through the ages have drawn their supplies from Him, and no one has ever complained of His limited resources.
So let us recognize Unbelief as a lying traitor, whose only mission is to destroy relationship and make us mourn as though we no longer had a Savior. John Bunyan tells us that unbelief has "as many lives as a cat:" if so, let us kill one life now, and then continue the work until the whole nine are gone. I desire with my whole heart to destroy this traitor who attempts to come between me and my Lord.
© Live at the Well
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Live at the Well.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Kelly Mowrer. © Live at the Well.
How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? Numbers 14:11 (NIV)
We must constantly be on guard against thoughts of doubt, worry, and anxiety--fighting them with all of our commitment and strength. Unbelief isn't something to shrug away as simply inevitable, or too strong to overcome.
Instead, we must immediately recognize that an attack from this enemy requires our most urgent opposition and our heart must be strongly defended against it. It so dishonors Christ that we will lose our sense of God's presence with us if we insult Him by giving it room to grow. Even though it's a weed that will keep coming back time and again, we must remove it and strike at it's root with all of our energy and perseverance.
Unbelief, doubt, worry, and anxiety are insidiously harmful and should be hated and feared as a most venomous poison.
For the child of God who has been treated with lavish mercy and overflowing blessings in the past, it is an even greater sin to doubt God in the present. A husband who has been only loving, faithful, and generously kind to his wife would feel great hurt to be always doubted by her.
This sin is needless, foolish, and unwarranted. Jesus has never given us the slightest ground for suspicion, and it is hard to be doubted by those to whom we have only and always shown perfect love and care.
Jesus is the Son of the Highest, and has unbounded wealth; how shameful it is to doubt Omnipotence and distrust all-sufficiency. The cattle on a thousand hills will be more than enough for our greatest needs, and the storehouses of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating.
If Christ were only a well, we might be able to drink it dry, but who can drain a fountain? Countless children through the ages have drawn their supplies from Him, and no one has ever complained of His limited resources.
So let us recognize Unbelief as a lying traitor, whose only mission is to destroy relationship and make us mourn as though we no longer had a Savior. John Bunyan tells us that unbelief has "as many lives as a cat:" if so, let us kill one life now, and then continue the work until the whole nine are gone. I desire with my whole heart to destroy this traitor who attempts to come between me and my Lord.
© Live at the Well
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Live at the Well.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Kelly Mowrer. © Live at the Well.