Words of Jesus Part 11

Matthew 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
18 He said, Bring them hither to me.
19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

God cares about our most basic needs. For people who were faithful to go and hear the word of God, God made sure that they had food even though originally there was not enough to feed them. Jesus did a miracle to make sure everyone was taken care of. If we believe..... nothing is impossible. Yet we will see in later passages of scripture that Jesus does not want us to seek Him for only the things of this life but seek the spiritual things and begin to trust Him for the other things. This does not mean that we can't ask for necessary things in emergency situations but we should not have things in this life for a priority when things that pertain to our inner person, our eternity and the salvation of those that can be saved by our witness to them is to be our main concern.

Matthew 14:22 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.
23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

I must point out here our most basic need and that is time alone with God in prayer. Without it, we cannot get through the things we may face without messing up big time.

Matthew 14:24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

God doesn't want us to fear the wrong things. We are not be fear things that threaten life but only be more concern about the things that threaten the soul from salvation.

Matthew 14:28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Peter started out good but when He got His eyes off the Lord, he began to doubt. Doubt could have cost Peter his life. We need to work on our faith and build on it. This is the main reason to spend much time in prayer because prayer and hearing the word of God will build faith. Lack of prayer will leave us empty. That is why there is so much unbelief. Actually we can get to the place in our lives when spending time with the Lord is not a chore or ritual, but something to look forward to. Take a quiet time to spend searching God's word and just spending time in prayer but also just be in a spirit of prayer all the time. Talk to God when we go about our daily routine.

Matthew 14:32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

These miracles proved to them that He was indeed the Son of God. We know in our world even today that miracles do not always happen and when they do happen, they do not last, then comes times of testing. We need the word and prayer for those times when our eyes do not see the miracles. It is faith that will sustain us during those times. In saying that I'm seeing the day of miracles return as we get closer to the return of the Lord. Lack of miracles could be because of our unbelief and being more dependent upon things in this life only. This is something to seek God about because according to the words of Jesus Himself, healing the sick should be accompanied by the preaching of the gospel. Signs should be following those that believe in order to confirm the word of God that we preach and teach. If it is not happening, keep preaching the gospel that saves but seek the Lord to find out what is wrong. God will still save souls but the gifts of the Holy Spirit were never supposed to stop until the time when everyone is saved, healed and Jesus has returned.

John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

If we believe having never seen anything with our natural eyes, we are counted very blessed. It is faith that saves. Unbelief is the biggest hindrance.

This study is to concentrate mostly on the actual words of Jesus so one might notice that I am skipping some verses so as to focus the study on His actual words.

I have other bible studies that focus on the entire chapters.

We see here that Jesus saw their hunger and made a way for them to be satisfied. We see that Jesus saw the disciples' fear and then comforted them. We see that Jesus saw Peter sinking and saved Him. He wanted to save more than his physical life here but desired to save him from sinking into unbelief and doubt. He wanted Peter to see more than the miracles but see that God is with us at all times even when we don't see anything with our natural eyes.

We see the need for prayer by the example of Jesus spending time with His father in prayer. We see the need for faith which comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

The more one spends in prayer and the study of the word, the more faith He will have. If we wonder why our faith in weak, we usually can trace it back to lack of prayer and study of the word. As long as Peter had his eyes on Jesus he could walk on water. The minute he looked at his circumstances, he began to sink.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus and spend time in His presence is prescious. We never have to be alone, but let it become something we do because we want to spend time with God. Learning to love God and doing all things in love is a better way than just trying to do things to earn God's favor. We take care of our children, because we love them. When we meet someone and fall in love, we want to spend time with them. Love for God takes away the struggle to do things just because we want to be sure we are right with God. Better to do things because we already are saved from sin and right with God. We begin to be thankful for His salvation instead of struggling with doubt. Enjoy His presence. Learn to love God so much that we can't wait to worship with others or spend private time with the Lord. It doesn't have to be a ritual or a chore.

Words of Jesus Part 12

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