Matthew 21:21
Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
Oh Me of Little Faith
I must admit that sometimes my faith is very small. It shows that I don’t really trust God. The opposite of faith is mistrust. I tend to trust what I see with my eyes and not what I believe in my heart to be true. When Jesus said “O you of little faith, why did you doubt” (Matt. 14:31), He could have been talking to me because, like Peter, I start to look at the water and begin to sink. The problem with Peter is the same problem that I have: I take my eyes off Jesus and look at the circumstances. How about you? How strong is your faith? Does your faith in God look like craziness to others, and do you care what others think? I have to ask myself that same question. One woman in Jesus’ day had great faith, which is why Jesus told her in Matthew 15:28, “’O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”
Increasing Your Faith
When I read the Bible, it seems to increase my faith because I can look back at the pages of history and see just how faithful God was. Since we know that God never changes (Mal. 3:6), and since our faith is in Jesus Christ, we should realize that He “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). What He’s done in the past He can do today. I believe if we are in the Bible on a daily basis, our faith will grow because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). So I can promise you that if you are reading the Bible every single day, you will grow your faith because faith comes by hearing, and I believe we can say by reading–reading “through the Word of Christ” and knowing that Jesus is the Word (John 1:1, 14), and that means we should be abiding in His Word.
A Radical Faith
We can never receive great rewards without taking great risks because great risks bring great rewards. Jesus said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:6). Stepping out in faith is scary business. I am a bi-vocational pastor, and one day I decided to quit my job and step out on faith because I knew that to pastor the church and write for some Christian websites while also working at a secular job was not going to work. Something was going to give, and it was probably going to be me, so I turned in my notice and gave them three weeks to find a replacement at the foster care agency I worked for. Just at the end of the three-week period, I received an offer to write for several other websites for a ministry, including the one that includes this daily devotional. God was faithful and supplied all of my needs. I’m not telling you I wasn’t worried and that my lack of faith didn’t cause me some sleeplessness, but taking that risk turned out to be the best decision of my life. It did look crazy to some of my family and friends and even my former co-workers, but I didn’t care. I knew I was meant to do this. What about you? Having a strong faith could make you look crazy to others, too, but do you care?
A Closing Prayer
Great Father, I know that faith is stepping out into an uncertain future, but since You created the universe, I know I can trust You. I can’t trust my own resources. But You, God, Who has everything at Your disposal, can give me the assurance to believe the things I don’t see by trusting in You, Whom I’ve never seen, and that’s because I have faith in You. In Jesus’ precious name I pray.
Amen
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