SCRIPTURE: Mark 8:11-13
There are different motivations for testing someone.
A jealous employee may set up a fellow employee with an assignment, hoping that they will fail; a wounded counselee may test their counselor with limited information, to see how they will respond.
Both are testing for selfish, personal reasons, but the counselee’s test is more understandable than the employee’s.
The religious leaders were testing Jesus to see Him fail; they were jealous, offended and prideful.
Jesus knows that some people struggle with faith, and may even test Him (or God) to see how they will respond.
Jesus is not offended by wounded, weary, needy people who struggle with doubt.
But He sighs deeply, and He refuses to accommodate, those who are determined to prove Jesus a fake.
If you are struggling, if you are doubting, if you are uncertain about God or Jesus and find yourself questioning or testing God, be assured that they understand, and they care.
But God (and Jesus) has limited patience for people do not want to believe; God will not play their game (give them a sign or miracle, etc.) when they demand it.
God genuinely cares and wants to help those who genuinely seek and desire His help.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for loving me enough not to play games with me, yet also to meet me where I am at, doubts and all.
Do Miracles still happen today? Show me proof. Give me a sign. We are not much different than the Pharisees in today’s verses. Even though Jesus was doing great things, they did not see the signs, and they did not trust that the signs were for real. We see the same disbelief following those who heal people today.
So there were and are two very different types of people. Those who followed after Jesus because he showed them great miracles, and they created hope in their lives for themselves or others they knew; and then there were those like the Pharisees who disbelieved that anything real was happening. It is hard to accept that something can happen outside the laws of nature. So they asked for a sign, for proof.
I pray that I can be trusting, and that I can see the hope that Jesus offers for my life. I pray that even without a sign, that I can trust in Jesus, and that he will be real to me by faith.