Sunday Sermonizing: A Little Faith is Enough
“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!””
I am firmly convinced faith is what Jesus desires from his people the most. Faith is precious to God.
Sometimes we are so much like the disciples. Bigger is better. If a little is good, a lot must be amazing. So, Lord - increase our faith. Make it bigger. Make it grander. Give us a lot.
Jesus' response was the anti-American dream.
All you need is mustard seed faith. Something so tiny. So small, it barely shows up in the hand. And that tiny bit of faith is enough to take a mountain of granite and move it into the sea.
This tells me that it's not ultimately even about my faith, as precious as that is in God's eyes. Mountains move because God is big enough and has authority enough to move them.
It's good not to mistake my faith for the power of God. They're actually not one and the same.
Here's the lesson I'm learning these days:
Faith is stretched when God moves us into the unexpected and uncomfortable place.
For the disciples in Luke 17, Jesus talks a lot about a coming Kingdom and a time when He will be taken away through death and resurrection. That's not expected. Nor is it comfortable.
But through the heart-rending time comes a faith that also produces hope.
As Peter says later in life - everything you live for and stand in rest in the death and resurrection of Jesus. that your faith and hope may be in God (I Peter 1:21).
We live in a day filled with uncertainty and brokenness. Faith can sometimes be hard to come by. I'm grateful faith isn't about size.
Faith is about the power of God.