Faith

“The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' He (Jesus) replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." Luke 17:5-6

The apostles were distracted by the "more" disease. It's a condition, with which, all of us at one time or another have been afflicted. All I need is more help, more money, more freedom, more power, more control, more time, more love and then everything will be better. The myth of the "more" has brought down many good people. 

In our verses for the day, Jesus was attempting to reorient the focus of the apostles' thinking. One commentator observed that the amount of faith is secondary to its quality and its focus. Honestly, how much faith, if directed towards the omnipotent God is really necessary? According to Jesus, a little living seed is all that is needed. 

A seed is meant to be planted. So is faith. Planted seeds need to be watered. So does faith. I doubt that any of us have a mulberry tree, like the one Jesus was standing next to, that needs to uprooted. We do, however, have steps of faith to take - sin to walk away from, fears to face, love to give, words to speak, gifts to share, burdens to remove, wounds to tend, hurts to forgive... Let's start planting those seeds and watch in awe what God does with them! 

Grace and Peace,
 
Tom Wiles
tom@fallcreekchristian.org

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