The early
disciples had a legitimate request when they asked for greater spiritual
strength. Jesus didn’t tell them the request was silly, only the limitations
they currently faced.
Luk 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Make our faith
greater." 6) The Lord answered, "If you had faith as big as a mustard
seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Pull yourself up by the roots and
plant yourself in the sea!' and it would obey you.
We could see this as Jesus
belittling his followers for their lack of faith, or we could see it as an
important teaching moment. It may be Jesus was trying to instruct his disciples
in the power of the faith they had. They weren’t using what little that was
there! A pastor friend once pointed out in a sermon Jesus was illustrating what
even a little faith could do at a time his disciples were asking for more.
It’s not that we need to move trees;
we need to understand what having the right relationship with God can mean for
our lives. This is just as true for a church as it is for an individual. We
walk by means of faith OR we walk by
means of the world.
Jesus would continue to be with
his disciples for only a few more weeks. During that time they would see him at
his greatest moments and also when his faith in his heavenly Father would be
stretched. Through all of it he would be teaching those who had ears to hear
and eyes to see lessons in faith.
God granted those early disciples
the faith to launch the Church into the world. They were already in trouble
with the Jewish leaders for claiming to have seen the resurrected Jesus.
Forming a community that would become independent of the Jerusalem Temple just
made matters worse.
Each member of that community was
drawn into it by faith that was also a gift from God, separating them from the
perspectives and morality of the world. (Ephesians 2:8-10) Their faith made
them different from the world and be either shunned or praised by the world.
Faith in God through Jesus Christ leads not only to salvation but must also
lead to a walk through this life that honors God and supports the work of his
Kingdom in this world.
By faith each follower of Jesus
Christ is a catalyst for change in the world. By faith each church or family of
faith is an outpost of the Kingdom of God. As individuals and as congregations,
our faith calls us to be different and make a difference where we live and in
the world as a whole.
Prayer is a mark of a life lived
by faith in Christ. It is the mark of a relationship. You give little attention
to what has little value to you whether it be material object or relationship.
You think about and spend time with what you consider of value. It demands your
attention and your resources.
That’s prayer. The more we pray
the more it reveals about our relationship with our heavenly Father. The more
our prayers allow God’s priorities to shape our lives and influence our
actions, the higher the value we place upon that relationship and the more
faith undergirds it.
Service is another mark of faith
for the believer in Jesus Christ. Effective prayer will not leave us in a
prayer closet. It will lead us to the hurting and dying. Faith-filled service
will lead us to walk beside the lonely and the lost. Through it we will offer
hope to the hopeless, compassion to the oppressed, and love to the outcasts of
the world.
Service empowered by faith in
Jesus Christ will lead us out of our comfort zones, away from areas of safety,
out of the familiar and into a messy world that is crying for someone to show
it something better exists. Faith empowered by the Spirit of God sacrificially
serves to transform.
Our prayer should be far more,
“Lord, help us walk by faith,” than “Lord, increase our faith.”
