Luke 17:5-6

And the Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Faith and mustard seeds, not much in common.  But Jesus uses the tiny seed as a sort of metaphor for faith.  He tells his followers that it doesn't take a large amount of faith to move a mulberry tree from the place where it is rooted.  To me the comparison says that if we have a little faith, a tiny droplet of faith, we can do great things.

So I ask myself, what kind of faith do I have and how much?

Do I have this tiny amount of faith that will help me move mountains?

And is there even a mountain that I need to move, or a mulberry tree, for that matter?

I can believe Jesus died for me, as am today, as I was yesterday and will be tomorrow.  I can believe that he loves me, although my understanding of love pales greatly when it comes to the love of God.  I can say that I am forgiven, yet not know how to truly forgive.

Jesus does ask us to consider our faith, that a small amount is in itself an abundance.  He asks us to trust.  Yet if you are anything like me, you find trusting to be quite difficult.  I worry about tomorrow, even though we are told that tomorrow has enough worries for itself.  I look at that which has been done for me, in hindsight, thinking I should have trusted more from the beginning, before His blessings were unfolded before me.

So the Apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith and I wonder if we can ever have enough faith to stand up to the metaphor.  We have to know that Jesus understands this about our humanity.  He picks us up when we fail, helps us to brush the dirt from our jeans and try again.  I will be trying until the day I go to Him.  I am so glad He's patient.



copyright 2016 - Donald P James Jr