Faith III - Little Faith ...

Thursday, Aug 13, 2015. Do you have faith? The question is a good one. What type of faith do you have? How deep is your faith? How are you trusting? The New Testament reports an incident, where Jesus comments on the faith of his disciples … it is really a good story! Have a look …

Faith like a mustard seed …

14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered,

“O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.4 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17, 14-20)

One interesting thing is that Jesus comments on his own disciples in a quite straight way: faithless and twisted generation. Are these not the people who had faith enough to leave everything behind just to be with Jesus? And yet, he calls their faith “little faith”, he even calls them “faithless” and “twisted”. Wow.

I must say: I can 100% identify myself with the disciples here. It is exactly my own experience: I cannot carry out the wonders which Jesus did. Yes, as the disciples sometimes wonders come, but mostly I feel as weak and powerless as they must have felt here. The faith, which Jesus has, seems just too wonderful for me.

How to go on? …

How is your faith developing? Faith is much more than just saying: ok, I believe. It is a life-long pilgrimage, it is a whole life! Faith means that I start to learn from him, learn true life. And I myself feel like I still have a lot to learn. After years of living with the Lord I feel like I am at the very beginning of a fantastic story, at the very beginning of an eternal adventure!

Our faith as it is does not need to stay as little as it is. We are invited to believe him, and when you do, your faith grows. All the letters of the New Testament are faith training. The apostles write about faith, about life in faith. The church itself should be a faith training camp, nothing less. Faith is the core of Christianity, the faith which trusts him, his love, his truth and his promises.

Faith means to let go and trust him. Faith means risk, since it does not mean control but trust. Faith means love, since this is his central command. Faith also means truth and reliability. It means forgiveness. It means a new beginning, which can take place again and again. Jesus himself gives us far reaching promises, which are linked to faith which is as tiny as the mustard sees. What else should encourage us to search faith, to risk faith and to trust him? God is good! (RWEP) ... more texts