7 November 2017
Small, Medium, Large, or Mustard Seed Size
Luke 17:5-6
The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!
Increasing in faith for the Believer doesn’t happen automatically, and it doesn’t happen magically. All we need to increase our faith is to recognize that it’s possible. We know that it’s impossible to please God without it (see Hebrews 11:6), so we also know that it pleases God when we have any amount of it – and Jesus elaborates on the amount of faith we need when he says that even a tiny bit is enough.
Everyone knows Jesus uses the mustard seed for his metaphor, because the smallest of all known seeds yields one of the largest known trees. It’s marvelous and miraculous how a tiny thing of a seed grows a ginormous tree. Likewise, a tiny bit of faith can produce a contradictory amount of enormous growth in the heart of the Believer.
That’s how we grow in our faith – just by little bits at time. God doesn’t give us all of the love we will need for all our lives for all of time all at once. Neither does he do that with wisdom and understanding, patience, peace, or any other product of the Holy Spirit. He just needs a willing heart that believes a little bit will go a long way in his economy.
Jesus tells us that nothing is impossible for God (see Matthew 19:26). So, while the disciples were wondering how to get all the faith they’re ever going to need all at once, Jesus explains to them that they just need to believe the amount they can, even if it’s only a little bit, and that even imagining the unlikely and the impossible, like a tree hiking up it’s roots and plopping itself into the sea, isn’t beyond God’s capabilities.
It’s upon whom we place our faith that makes it grow not how much of it we have. A simple willingness to trust and obey is all the faith we need, because God can take that tiny little bit and make it huge – not the other way around.
Dear God,
I’ve seen you do some amazing things in my life and in my own heart. And I know you can do it again. I like knowing there is nothing that is impossible for you no matter how unlikely and unreasonable it looks to me. I am so thankful that you don’t require more of me than I can actually have, and that you do all the producing from what I do have. Thank you for how you relate to me and work in my life. I love you and thank you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Small, Medium, Large, or Mustard Seed Size
Luke 17:5-6
The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!
Increasing in faith for the Believer doesn’t happen automatically, and it doesn’t happen magically. All we need to increase our faith is to recognize that it’s possible. We know that it’s impossible to please God without it (see Hebrews 11:6), so we also know that it pleases God when we have any amount of it – and Jesus elaborates on the amount of faith we need when he says that even a tiny bit is enough.
Everyone knows Jesus uses the mustard seed for his metaphor, because the smallest of all known seeds yields one of the largest known trees. It’s marvelous and miraculous how a tiny thing of a seed grows a ginormous tree. Likewise, a tiny bit of faith can produce a contradictory amount of enormous growth in the heart of the Believer.
That’s how we grow in our faith – just by little bits at time. God doesn’t give us all of the love we will need for all our lives for all of time all at once. Neither does he do that with wisdom and understanding, patience, peace, or any other product of the Holy Spirit. He just needs a willing heart that believes a little bit will go a long way in his economy.
Jesus tells us that nothing is impossible for God (see Matthew 19:26). So, while the disciples were wondering how to get all the faith they’re ever going to need all at once, Jesus explains to them that they just need to believe the amount they can, even if it’s only a little bit, and that even imagining the unlikely and the impossible, like a tree hiking up it’s roots and plopping itself into the sea, isn’t beyond God’s capabilities.
It’s upon whom we place our faith that makes it grow not how much of it we have. A simple willingness to trust and obey is all the faith we need, because God can take that tiny little bit and make it huge – not the other way around.
Dear God,
I’ve seen you do some amazing things in my life and in my own heart. And I know you can do it again. I like knowing there is nothing that is impossible for you no matter how unlikely and unreasonable it looks to me. I am so thankful that you don’t require more of me than I can actually have, and that you do all the producing from what I do have. Thank you for how you relate to me and work in my life. I love you and thank you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
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