What Weakens Faith
When Jesus and the disciples were caught in a great storm of wind, and their boat filled with water from the waves, the disciples thought they were going to perish. Jesus, on the other hand, was asleep on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Master, carest thou not that we perish”? He rebuked the wind, said to the sea, Peace, be still, and there was a great calm. Then we read in Mk 4:40, “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith”?
Tonight we’re going to look at what weakens faith.
The first is fear, Mk 4:40. Fear is such a powerful emotion that it causes you to imagine that the thing you fear is really going to happen. The disciples truly feared that they were going to perish in this storm. They even said so. They weren’t going to perish. Jesus had said, right before the trip, “Let us pass over unto the other side”, Mk 4:35. They were going to make it. Had they believed what he said and considered that he was sleeping, they wouldn’t have believed what they felt. Fear weakens faith. Their fear weakened their faith in what Jesus said and in who Jesus is, Mk 4:41.
The second is doubt, Matt 21:21, Mk 11:22-24. To doubt is to call into question the truth of or to be uncertain about something. Antonyms of doubt are faith and belief. Notice, the devil first caused Eve to doubt God’s words in Gen 3:1 before presenting her with the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit. When you believe God and don’t doubt, your faith is strong. But as soon as you begin to doubt, your faith starts to weaken. Doubt weakens faith.
The third is sight, 2 Cor 5:7. “For we walk by faith, not by sight”. On Sunday, we didn’t cancel services, even though rain was still in the forecast from Hurricane Beryl. Sunday afternoon, I believed the Lord was leading me to visit a fellow in Doctor’s Regional. So, I left the house about 4:00 and drove right into a heavy rain with gusting winds on Crosstown Expressway. When all I saw was rain in every direction, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake. I continued to drive and pray. But I must admit that what I saw surely weakened my faith. As it turns out, the rain ceased the moment I turned into the parking lot of the hospital. And we had a wonderful service without rain at 6:00 later that evening. Sight weakens faith.
Conclusion: Each of these things weakens faith and all three of them can be found in Matt 14:30-31, when Peter walked on water. Sight: when he saw the wind boisterous. Fear: he was afraid. Doubt: O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Remember what weakened faith did to Peter. So, the next time one of these things creeps in, you can put aside the doubt, fear, and sight and keep trusting God and what he said, instead.