“And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
– Matthew 13:58
Wow, what a statement. Jesus not showing mighty works because of people’s unbelief, because of their lack of faith.
Matthew 13:58 Shows the Devastating Consecuence of Unbelief
Reading this verse I immediately I think I don’t want that to be the case in my life. I don’t want that to be the case around me or in my family. Surely I don’t want that to be the case in the church I’m a part of. I don’t want that to be the case in the place where I live. I want to see mighty works of God, don’t you? And don’t you want to see God’s might at work in your life, God’s power at work in your family, in your work, in your church? Don’t you want to see God’s might at work in the place where you live? Don’t you want to see God’s might at work in your city and in the nations of the world?
“He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” And so we pray God, please help our unbelief. We don’t want to live an unbelief and we don’t want to miss out on seeing and experiencing Your mighty works in our lives because of our unbelief.
Matthew 13:58 Reminds us we should cry out to God to help our unbelief.
So we pray today for faith. Lord, we pray for belief. We pray for trust in You, for trust in Your might, in Your love, in Your wisdom. God, we pray for faith to ask boldly for things according to Your word in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in the world around us, and to pray, to ask for these things with faith just as You promise. That when we ask according to Your word, we have what we’ve asked. That when we pray, we are praying to You, our generous Father who has all authority in all the universe. And You are ready to give, ready to provide, ready to show Your might when we ask. God, we praise You for the privilege of prayer.
Jesus, we praise You for making this possible and we pray that You would help our unbelief, that You would increase faith in us, in the people around us, that we might see Your mighty works among us.
Praying for the Mazhabi People
God to help our unbelief and we pray with faith today for the Mazhabi people of India, Sikh tradition people, 3.4 million of them, very few followers of Jesus, relatively among them. God, we pray for the spread of Your grace and Your glory, for disciples to be made and churches to be multiplied among the Mazhabi people of India. We pray that with faith, God, that you have power to cause the gospel to spread like wildfire among these 3.4 million people. So we pray, God, please do it. Do it for Your glory. We pray with faith, even as we pray for the same thing in the places where we live. God, for Your gospel to spread like wildfire, for people to see Your might. And as we pray for so many things in our lives, our families and circumstances around us, God help us today to pray and to live with faith, with belief in You. In Jesus name, we pray, according to Matthew 13 verse 58. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
