“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?'” (Matt 14:31 NIV)

One of our biggest weaknesses is our expert tendency to doubt anything and everything.

“It’s too good to be true!”

“I wonder what his intentions are!”

“What’s the catch?”

It is true that we live in a world filled with deceit, and most of the time there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

However, if you combine doubt with curiosity you can end up in a nefarious situation!

I still remember the time we visited Nogales, Mexico. My wife was attending an university in Arizona, and as we had little in the way of money, we didn’t expect much from our Mexico shopping spree. All we really wanted to do was to immerse ourselves in the typical Mexican ambiance and experience the Mexican culture.

We admired the handwork of the many Mexican artists: Vases, statues, rugs… In one store an eager salesman accosted us as we were admiring a splendid … (I don’t even remember if it was a vase or a little statue! It must not have been that splendid after all!)

He immediately began to bargain with us, and he soon realized that we didn’t have the means to match his price. It’s simple, really: Almost no income = Almost no purchases, especially the non-necessary-for-survival kind!

Then he asked us point blankly: “How much can you afford?” Our price choices were pretty low, and we were certain we would be booted out of the shop. Imagine our surprise when he muttered: “Be at such and such corner of the street in one hour!”

We looked at each other and tried to figure out what he meant. It sounded a bit fishy. One thing was certain, however. He could not hit us over the head to rob us of money we didn’t have! Curiosity got the better of us, and an hour later we were at the specified corner with the sales person.

“Do you have the money?” He asked us matter-of-factly.

“What money?” We responded.

He flipped back the corner of a blanket in his hand, and there was the coveted item (which I don’t even remember what it was!) This was not the way of doing honest business, and we felt like Eve confronting the serpent about the attractive forbidden fruit. We wondered out loud why we had come!

The sad part of this story is that we indeed have a tendency to put more credence and faith into worldly things than in God Himself! How often don’t we treat God as someone who will take advantage of us! How often don’t we look at God with suspicious, doubt-filled eyes!

With such an attitude, is it any wonder that He can’t come through for us more often? He is no criminal! He never lies! He doesn’t ever want to lure us into something disastrous to our souls! So why the doubt?

In fact, to set our broken relationship with Him straight, His Son willingly took the cross and died so that we would have reconciliation and an opportunity to spend eternity with the Lover of our soul!

Isn’t it time that we set aside our doubts and start trusting the One who promised us real living? “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)

Would you be interested in this beautiful worthless knickknack that will cost you your soul? The price is right, don’t you think?

Rob Chaffart

(To view the entire “You of Little Faith” devotional series, please click here.)