But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Whenever God reveals something, He expects us to believe Him and adjust our lives accordingly. What does this mean? It means we trust Him implicitly for all of our needs because He says He will provide (Phil. 4:19).

It means we approach crises with the assurance that God will bring good from them (Rom. 8:28). It means we overcome anxiety during stressful situations because God instructs us to bring our requests to Him (Phil. 4:6).

"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Matt. 14:31.

The pivot word in this question is "wherefore." Doubt should have a sufficient reason for it. Neither Peter nor any other has been able to find a satisfactory answer to this all-piercing "wherefore " of Jesus. The implication is, God could allow us to doubt if we had sufficient reason for it.

The unbelief of the human heart startled and amazed Jesus at every turn. It was like the air on the frozen polar sea, that pierced His sensitive nature on every side.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.” 1 John 5:14, 15

Please notice carefully exactly what God tells us in this passage. Here we are told that there is a way in which certain people can pray so as not only to get the very thing that they ask, but also to know before they actually get it, that God has heard their prayer and that therefore the thing which they have asked

Reuben Archer Torrey: Congregationalist, evangelist; born at Hoboken, New Jersey [United States], January 28, 1856. He was graduated from Yale University (B.A., 1875) and from the theological department there (B.D., 1878), and studied at the universities of Leipsic and Erlangen. He was pastor of the Congregational Church, Garrettsville, Ohio (1878-82), Open Door Church, Minneapolis (1883-86); superintendent of the Minneapolis City Missionary Society (1886-89); pastor of People's Church, Minneapolis (1887-89); superintendent of Chicago Evangelization Society and Moody Bible Institute (1889-1908), having meanwhile been pastor of the Chicago Avenue Church, Chicago (1894-1905); and since December, 1901, has been engaged in evangelistic work, part of the time in a tour of the world, preaching in China, Japan, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, India, Germany, in the United Kingdom, and at home.