How Little is Your Faith?

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"  And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.  (Matthew 17:19-20)

Think about this for just a moment.  How little is your faith?  No, I didn't say "How much faith do you have?" or "How big is your faith?"  Yes, I really asked you how little is your faith.

The short conversation from the book of Matthew between Jesus and His disciples took place after a man brought his son, who is described as a lunatic, to the disciples to be healed.  You can understand the desperation of the father for his son to be healed, for the son's condition had often caused him to fall into fire and water, injuring him and perhaps coming close to killing him.  You can almost feel the father's frustration when the disciples were unable to do anything.  Imagine the joy when Jesus placed His hands on the son and spoke the words that cured the condition.  What a wonderful sight it must have been to watch that father walk with his son, for the first time in we don't know how long, without having to worry about what would happen to the boy next.

However, in the aftermath was the frustration and disappointment of the disciples, who seemingly were saying, "Jesus, why didn't it work for us?  We did exactly what we have seen you do!"  When pressed for an answer to this question, Jesus said, "Your faith is too little."

I read this passage a couple of weeks ago, and not for the first time, but this time that statement shook me and made me wonder.  I was reading a story about the men who walked with Jesus closer than any other person ever has.  These were the men that literally wrote the book on faith, penning many of the new testament books.  If these men didn't have faith, then who does?  But, there it was, in black and white, or red and white in the red letter editions.  Jesus was telling these great men that they lacked the basic element to be an effective servant - faith.

I know, He never said that they didn't have any faith.  However, He did tell them that all the faith they needed would be as big as a mustard seed.  That is not very big.  A mustard seed is about 1/20", or about 1 mm.  So, here is this small seed, and the faith of these men is not even that big.  How little and limited must their faith have been, if it couldn't even match up to that little seed?

In his sermon this morning, my pastor, Rob Ray, stated that often we become so enamored and engrossed in methodologies for doing things in the church that we forget to include the God who called us to do the thing.  (Before anyone who was there gets upset, I know this is not an exact quote, but you get the idea!)  I think that is what happened to the disciples here.  They did everything that they had seen Jesus do, but they forgot two key things.  First, the same method will not work for every issue, and second, before you attempt anything, yo have to pray for God's guidance.

This leads me back to my initial question.  How little is your faith?  When you ask God for something, are you trusting Him that He can do what you have asked?  Now, I am NOT saying that if you ask God for something and He doesn't give it that there is a problem with you.  What I am saying is, if it is important enough to go to God with it, go with confidence and know that He will answer your prayer in His time and in His will.  Trust Him that in things small or things large, our God is always for us and will do what is best for us!

Finally, if you are going to exercise faith in prayer, GO BIG!  Now, I am not advocating a "name it and claim it" or prosperity gospel.  That is not what Jesus tells us about the nature of God.  Jesus Himself prayed for the Father's will to be done.  But, Jesus did say that if we asked, God would give.  If you couple these two ideas together, you find that if we are truly walking with God, we will only ask for things that line up with His will.  But, the only way to know His will is to ask.  The worst that can happen is that He says no, but He will guide us to what we need.

So, how little is your faith?  Exercise it, and see if it won't grow!