Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 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.
7 “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’? 8 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’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 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’” (NIV).
The apostles asked Jesus to “increase their faith.” He replied with the now familiar observation that faith “as a mustard seed” is enough to uproot trees and plant them in seas… Then He immediately confronted them with a question, robed in a word picture. Is a servant to be congratulated, honored, and rewarded for merely completing his assigned tasks? Or is that servant expected to persist in acting out his loyalty by going above and beyond the call of duty?
What we need, Jesus seems to be saying, is not an increase in our faith, but an increase in our responsiveness to the faith we already possess. We have enough faith to speak and act with powerful results – so all which remains is to… well, speak and act!
We shouldn’t expect significant supernatural power to accompany a life of spiritual mediocrity; and what is mediocrity other than doing only what is “commanded” of us in our religious context? We may be tempted to think that if we worship at the designated service times and do the minimum devotional maintenance that is expected of us and refer to ourselves as “Christians” we will be vessels of God’s power. Perhaps instead of asking Jesus to increase our faith we should be pleading with Him to increase our faithfulness – to a level above and beyond the status quo, until we constantly and passionately speak and act based on His promises. These verses are simply a reminder that regardless of what passes for religious commitment around us, Jesus expects nothing less than a full-blown consumption of our lives by the cause of the kingdom.
Are you asking Jesus to increase your faith; to help you believe? What if you realized that faith is a gift you’ve already been given… and now all that remains is for you to use it. Spiritual power isn’t just about explosive Sunday experiences; it’s about a lifestyle of trust in God. Monday miracles await those who believe – and who act on it.
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