‘And He said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.’ –Matthew 8:26
“Do you doubt your Lord’s power? These disciples ought not to have done so, for they had lately been eye-witnesses of many remarkable displays of His power.
Had they not seen Him cast out devils? Had they not been with Him when a touch of His had healed the leper, —when, another time, the laying of His hand upon the fevered brow had raised the sick one from her bed?
Had they not come fresh from a mass of miracles where, in the crowded street, He had dealt out healing to all manner of sufferers? How could they doubt His power when, before their own eyes, they had seen it so wonderfully displayed?
Is He Master of devils, and not of winds? Can He cast out diseases, and not lull to sleep the roaring billows? It was both absurd and wicked for them to think of setting a limit to His unbounded power.
And now, you dear child of God, after the experience you have had of His goodness, and after what you know the Lord did for you by His redeeming love in ages past, —dare you say that He has not power to deliver you now?
Is anything too hard for the Lord? You say that you are poor; but can He not supply your need? Are not the cattle upon a thousand hills His own? Does He not claim the silver and gold as His treasure?
He can feed the universe; He has done it these many centuries, and He is still doing it. The commissariat of the whole universe has depended upon His perpetual benevolence and care; and yet, from day to day, the hosts of birds, and beasts, and fishes, and insects, still are fed.
And will not He, who supplies the wants of all living creatures by simply opening His hand, find food enough for His own child? Will you doubt His power? Is your case a very peculiar and difficult one?
Do you draw a line, and say, ‘This God can do, but that He cannot do’? Is that right? Is it reasonable? Granted that He is omnipotent,—and He is omnipotent, whether you admit it or not,—and you have done away with difficulties.
O thou with little faith in God’s power, wherefore dost thou doubt? He can— He will—help thee, if thou wilt but trust Him to do so.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “Comfort for the Fearful,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 49 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1903), 49: 483. Spurgeon is preaching on Matthew 8:26.
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