Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' He replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you. Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, "Come along now and sit down to eat"? Would he not rather say, "Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink"? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'
Disciples came before Jesus and said: "Increase our faith!" I believe this is always what we are asking for today, and we are even more eager to know what would be the response from Jesus. Jesus explained with the parable of mustard seed: You can just sit there and ask for faith. If you want to have increased faith, you need to exercise the faith that you possess today. Through following the commands of God, much like how the servant follows the master. During the course of obeying God, you will find that God is as faithful and trustworthy as He claims to be, thus your faith will increase.
During the time that I was heading towards full-time ministry, the most difficult phase was when I quit my job to start studying theology and my wife became pregnant. It was difficult to take that first step. God, however, reminded me how the Israelites entered the Promised Land; when they were about the cross Jordan River, they were in a different state as back when they cross the Red Sea. When Red Sea was in front of them, Moses raised his staff, and the sea parted, then they walked through it. It didn't take much faith to do it. This time, however, God told them to first step into water, and then the river parted; if they didn't step into the water, the river wouldn't have parted. If they deliberated about it, they would never have entered Canaan. If I was commanded to take the path of full-time ministry, how could I not do it? If I didn't follow, how could I have experienced God's faithfulness? Therefore, I took the first step by faith, and God provided abundance to my family that was beyond our imagination. The time I spent studying theology turned out to be the time I was most wealthy, because offerings from brothers and sisters and the support from church poured in continuously. I truly experience God's faithfulness.
Sometimes we complain that God doesn't give us faith, but the problem is because we didn't exercise our faith by following god's word. May God's spirit encourage us once again, and let us learn to do everything by faith, and not by sight.
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