Verse: Luke 17: 5-6
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord 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.
Devotional Thoughts:
I recently had an interesting conversation with the Harts about farming. We were discussing the various crops that are harvested, and we got to talking about canola seeds. To my surprise, they said that the canola seeds are so small (about the size of a mustard seed) that they actually have to tape up some of the spaces in their combine just to keep them from falling out.
As you can read from the verses above, Jesus used the metaphor of a mustard seed in discussing spiritual realities. The disciples are asking Jesus for more faith. They say to Jesus, “Increase our faith.” And Jesus responds by saying that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, even the trees would obey them. In another passage He even says that mountains would move if they had faith the size of a mustard seed.
At the heart of what He’s saying is this – The amount of faith you have isn’t as important as who your faith is in.
Why?
Because little is much in the hands of God.
God has done great things with very little. He’s healed the blind with a little mud. He’s fed thousands with a little bread and fish. He’s made bitter waters sweet with a simple log.
The blind man wasn’t healed because he had great faith that Jesus could heal him. The thousands weren’t fed because they had great faith that Jesus was some sort of master chef. The Israelites weren’t given clean water because of their great faith that God could make bitter waters sweet.
Understand me here – In a similar way, the power to move the proverbial mulberry tree isn’t in the amount of our faith.
Rather, the power is in the person. The power is in the object of our faith. Not the amount of faith we have but rather who our faith is in.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…
– Hebrews 12:1-2
Little is much in the hands of God. We’re to look to Jesus and have faith in Him.
Points to Ponder:
Read Acts 3:1-16
- What did Peter say to those who were greatly amazed?
- How does Peter correlate great faith and faith in a great God?
My hope is that this offers some encouragement to you. I’ve had individuals come up to me before, wondering if they did or didn’t have enough faith.
But we don’t place our trust in our faith. We trust in Jesus.
Blessings,
Zac
