Is Your Faith Small Enough?

Has anyone ever accused you of not having enough faith?

Have you wondered if, in fact, you do have enough of this thing so highly rated in the Bible?

Oddly, on one occasion, Jesus told Friends He’d called “unbelieving” that they needed “Small faith,” faith as small as a “tiny seed.” With that miniscule amount of this powerful trait “nothing,” He said, “would be impossible” for them.

What is this powerful substance which, even in such tiny amounts, can accomplish the impossible?

A closer look at the incident which prompted Jesus to say these things to His Friends reveals some clues to what this thing Christ called “faith” is. His Friends had failed to help a Man whose Son was being attacked by an evil spirit. Jesus came along and promptly delivered the boy from the destructive demon.

His Followers asked Him why they couldn’t “drive out” the demon. He answered, “Because you have so little faith.” Then He said, “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain ‘move from here to there’ and it will move.”

How’s that for a contradiction in terms? Too “little” of this substance is their problem. A small amount of it can solve their problem.

What’s the difference?

Some ancient copies of Matthew’s biography have an extra sentence following the phrase “nothing will be impossible for you.” It reads, “But this kind does not go out except by prayer, and fasting.”

Usually this is understood to mean, “This kind of evil spirit cannot be driven out unless you pray and fast.”

There is, however, another way to read it. “Faith does not come about except by prayer and fasting.”

Someone might ask, “What’s the difference?”

The difference is that Christ’s faith was not about His powers but His Father and His purposes. His whole life can be summarized in a simple prayer. “Not what I will, but what You will.” His faith was an unshakable belief that what His Father wanted done, no matter how formidable, or how high the price, could be done and would accomplish the greatest good no matter how awful the experience.

THE MESSAGE paraphrase of Christ’s explanation regarding his Friends’ failure is, “Because you're not yet taking God seriously, … The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, 'Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle.”

This explains the heart of the matter. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem where He’ll live through the darkest hours ever experienced by any human. His Friends got in His face when He talked about this. They didn’t even understand what He meant. They were busy constructing, in their minds, the Empire they expected Him to establish and quarreling over which of them would be the greatest in His Kingdom. They actually weren’t “taking God seriously.” They “had in mind human things,” not “the things of God!”

“Fasting and prayer,” when undertaken for the sake of power and prestige are idols accomplishing nothing at all except occasional self-aggrandizement. When they are employed, as Jesus used them, in search of the “mind and heart” of His Heavenly Father they provide this very thing; understanding.

Jesus knew, as this incident was taking place, what was ahead. But He spoke not only of the dreadful side of it, His death. He talked, as well, of the triumph that awaited Him. He believed the impossible would be the outcome. He believed He “would be raised to life.”

Through a personal spiritual quest to “know” Our Father, be it “prayer,” or “fasting,” or whatever a passionate love for him leads us to, He will reveal His highest purposes to us one “poppyseed” sized glimpse at-a-time. We will understand how He intends to make it happen and what role He has for us to play in it.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to Him must believe that He is and that it pays to diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11: 6) And only a seed of such faith will inevitably accomplish great, even impossible, feats!