I ran into an interesting web site today. The title is awkward... but the content is pretty good.
I want you to think about just how cutting and "impatient" and "mean" this must have sounded.
Here's the scene: A man loves his son and his son is very sick, deathly ill. He takes his son to the only people who can help him: the disciples (Mat 17.14-16). Now, think about it... The disciples TRIED THEIR BEST to help the man (v19). The man loved his son and was BROKEN over the child's condition. The man just wanted help the child he loved. He wanted his son back.
Notice how twisted and perverse our perception of the Lord Jesus Christ is. He was not the ever-kind, soft-spoken, winsome, frolicking-in-the-spring-flowers "Jesus" of Family Bookstores.
Jesus said some very hard things to some very sincere people, even hurting people. And I think He said those hard things because, in spite of their sincerity and their hurt, they were wrong and they needed to hear it just like Jesus said it.
Faith glorifies God because it shows our trust in Him.
It is proof by behavior that we count God worthy of our trust.
We believe his Word and we act on it, even though we may not understand it.
That shouts to all creation that we believe what God said and we count Him worthy of all our trust in every situation.
Lack of faith is calling God a liar.
It is shouting out to all creation that we don't believe God will actually do what He said.
We are a faithless and perverse generation.
Our unbelief is staggering from our perspective.
I think that unbelief is unthinkably offensive from God's perspective.
It merits the most stern and harsh of rebukes, even when we are sincere and even when we are hurting.