"And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14: 31)
Even when we doubt, we should never fear to call out for Christ's help in our lives.
Too often, when we start to doubt in any way, we start looking at ourselves to figure out what to do about our doubt.
Yet even in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus' disciples saw Jesus as a teacher instead of Savior, He reached out and helped them, rather than merely wake up and upbraid them for disturbing His sleep.
Consider also this time when Jesus asked the disciples why they doubted:
"Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." (John 20: 27)
Notice that Jesus came to Thomas personally, and responded personally to his doubt.
There is no record that Thomas ever touched Jesus, but he exclaimed:
"And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." (John 20: 28)
Still, we will have a hard time receiving from God our Father unless we receive that spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15).
Take a look at what happened to Adam and Eve when they ate from the forbidden fruit:
"7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves " (Genesis 3: 7)
They became self-conscious instead of God-conscious. Even when they had sewn for themselves fig leaves to cover their nakedness, they hid in shame when God appeared:
"8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden."
Why?
"And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Genesis 3: 10)
As long as we have this sin-consciousness of wrongdoing, we will forever hide from God, and we will not trust Him, let alone receive from Him.
How do we escape from this terrible bondage?
John provides the answer:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
We receive boldness when we understand the perfection of God's love, not ours, which has taken us from dead in our trespasses to alive and in Christ.
What then does this love do for us?
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.' (1 John 4: 18)
The love of God was demonstrated for us, in that Christ died for us, was risen for us, and now serves as our propitiation, or our mercy seat before God the Father (1 John 4:10)
We can then trust that God is for us, not against us (Romans 8:31), and thus we can receive all things from Him (Romans 8: 32)
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