God has spoken by his messengers

In the face of unbelief

The more I called them,

The more they went from me. Hosea 11:2

Read John 5:41—47

All around me I see unbelief. It is written on the faces of many of my fellow commuters. It is in the conversation of my friends and relatives. Sometimes cheerful, sometimes thoughtless and banal, mostly unacknowledged, unrecognised. Faith is often barely missed, unfaith only now and then regretted. The shock of it is, if I retreat to my Bible hoping to find it full of faith, the doubt and distrust of God is there, too. Most people I meet in the Bible are unbelievers, misbelievers, enemies of God and of his faithful ones and of his church. Yet I must go there. I must, from Abraham to Moses to the judges and to David and the prophets, I must trace the way the word of God comes through great contention and disobedience and rejection until this word speaks in Jesus and as Jesus, and there I can set my hope.

Prayer
Loving God, my Lord and God, you know the depth and pain of human unbelief. You know it when we put other gods before you. You knew it when the Son who came in the name of the Father was rejected. You know it when you are cursed rather than honoured, when your name is equated with evil rather than holiness. Let me not fear the thought of others. Let me fear you. Let me not be guided by the reputation of others. Let me please you. Let me not cave in to the words of your opponents. Let me believe the word you have spoken that has come in its joyful fullness and full sweetness in Jesus.