We Need More Faith - The One Year Book of Hope

We Need More Faith

One day the apostles said to the Lord, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.” “Even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed,” the Lord answered, “you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May God uproot you and throw you into the sea,’ and it would obey you!” –Luke 17:6

When I met Diane years ago, she was bright and energetic, but her wig gave away the battle she was fighting—an all-out fight against breast cancer. We asked God to work a miracle in her life and in her body and restore her to health. In her desperation, Diane also drew close to another group of people who encouraged her to surround herself only with people who believed that she was going to be healed. She began to turn away from many of us who wanted to walk with her on this difficult road. If you didn’t believe absolutely that she was going to be healed, you were not welcome.

I suppose I understand where some of this comes from. She wanted to surround herself in an atmosphere of faith. But sometimes I wondered, faith in what? Faith in God, or faith in faith? Submission to God or insisting on a particular outcome? Sometimes it seems as if people think they feel they must prove to God that they have enough faith and no doubt—that God not only can but will heal them—in order for God to grant their request for healing.

Does God really set up those kinds of hoops for us to jump through? And in terms of faith, how much is enough? How do you measure it? And how do you get the mountain-moving, mulberry tree–uprooting, demon-removing kind? Rather than giving the disciples a formula for increasing their faith, Jesus told them that it isn’t the amount of faith that matters, but the object of faith. In fact, the only thing that matters about your faith is its object.

If the object of your faith is your ability to work up enough to impress God, your faith will be as weak as your flesh. If the object of your faith is a particular outcome for your situation, your faith will be as weak as your wisdom. But if the source and object of your faith is Almighty God, even if it is the weak, mustard-seed variety, your faith will be enough for whatever God allows into your life.

Source and Object of my faith, you have given me the gift of faith. I trust you with my life and my death and with the lives and deaths of those I love, knowing you can move mountains of difficulty as I place my faith in you.

DIGGING DEEPER