Faith

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.  Matthew 17:20

So, we were at small group the other day for Bible study and prayer.  We meet together with several friends to share in God’s Word and encourage one another in the faith.  All of us are young (yeah, I know we’re getting older) and have small kids.  And because we are all in the same season of life, we have a lot in common.  I’ll be honest, at first, I was unsure about bringing our kids to the group because they might be distracting, but it works. Other kids are there too, and they play together well.  We are sharing life together in these moments. 

In order to social distance we are meeting outside together, and that’s given the kids more room to play and be loud.  They certainly have fun!  The other day six of them were playing with a black and pink motorized vehicle for kids.  This thing runs on battery power, and they would drive it around the yard, up and down hills, piling as many kids in as possible.  After a while we noticed the battery starting to die, and the vehicle running out of power.  What would the kids do, you think?  Would they give up on the rides and leave it stranded?  Nope.  A couple of them would get out and push, while someone pressed the accelerator, tapping into what little power they had left in the battery.  They continued for a long time like that until finally they didn’t have anymore strength (or battery power) left.  They ran empty. 

While there is a lot of value in the self-determination and teamwork our kids put on display, I’m reminded how often I do the same in my life.  I have responsibilities, a long to do list, dreams, and high expectations.  I’m determined to accomplish them all, and many of them are really good things.  But sometimes I find that I’m running low on power.  I’m not talking about being physically tired or gassed.  It’s something altogether different. 

God has given every disciple responsibilities and good works to do in His kingdom (Eph 2:10).  When Jesus came down from the mountain, he found the disciples and others arguing over the inability to cast a demon out of a boy.  The disciples had done this before, but now it seemed impossible.  The act of freeing this boy from demonic possession is a great thing, but for some reason they couldn’t do it.  Why?  Jesus said they lacked faith, and in Mark 9 He said that this kind can only be driven out by prayer.  The disciples did not believe God or seek God in their efforts.  They had run empty on divine power. 

Too often we try to do all these things – good things – in our own strength.  We fail to rely on the power of God at work, and we lose faith.  We stop asking God to do the impossible because we think we can do it ourselves.  We will push that vehicle up and down the hills as long as we can, but eventually our strength gives out.  We need to trust God to do great things in our families, our churches, and our communities.  When we put our faith – complete trust and confidence – in God to do great things, we will ask Him to do so.  And when we ask in faith, He will work through us to do it.  In fact, faith in God gives us the boldness to speak to a mountain saying, “Move from here to there” (Matthew 17:20).  That’s powerful! 

But apart from God we can do nothing.  We must believe and pray in faith. 


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