Germ Faith Planted

Luke 17:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.

Have you ever bemoaned the smallness of your faith, mountains unmoved, trees still firmly planted, oceans undisturbed by the invasions of various faith tossing articles? Like the disciples, we long to search inside ourselves for the magic lever, the red button, that multiples faith like bacteria. If only an infection of God's grace would radically stir the microscopic faith inside!

Grace is not a quantity. We are under abundant, lavish, immeasurable grace or we are dead in sin. God's grace cannot be bought, earned, multiplied, or grown. Grace never fails because it is the gift of the unfailing Almighty.

And so is faith.

Somehow our quantifiable reality believes that this salvation is a joint effort: God supplies the grace, we supply the faith. Even your faith is a magnificent and undiminishing gift of God.

For the first time in history size is not the issue. God does not declare to his disciples, "This is how small your faith should be." Rather he compassionately reminds us that the focus is not our minuscule faith.

The focus is our enormous God.

A small faith planted in a great Lord rattles reality. It rips up mountains, churns oceans, and transforms lives. A big faith in God as we imagine Him (an idol, which is really nothing at all), is less than empty. It consumes, decays, disappoints, and despairs.

What effort are you pouring into finding faith, grace, and goodness in yourself? Imagine what our worlds would be if instead of seeking gifts we already have, we put all that labor into knowing the Savior, the incredible source of goodness, the matchless object of faith, the gushing river of grace.