READ Matthew 17-20
Sometimes those Christmas gifts under the tree are a
disappointment. We give them with well-meaning, but the recipient only unwraps
them and never uses them. Both giver and receiver are haunted with
disappointment and a sense of ‘what do I do now’ rather than the joy intended.
The NT says that faith is a gift from God, an ability to
believe that we cannot conjure up ourselves. This gift comes through listening:
“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ” and we wonder about those who never hear it,
but the next verse says everyone hears it one way or another: “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they
have, for 'Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the
ends of the world.’ ” (Romans 10:17–18) Romans 3 explains why God gives it
this way. It is because without God’s help, “No
one seeks God . . . .” We need that gift.
Faith is defined as believing God exists, and believing He
rewards those who seek Him. It is an inner assurance involving hope and a
conviction that what God says is true, even if we cannot see it with our eyes.
(Hebrews 11)
Yet this raises another question. Some who profess faith in Christ
seem to assume that faith for salvation is sufficient. Yet we also are told to
walk by faith, pray in faith, and trust the Lord for all things. This seems a
most obvious thing to do, yet I wonder if the Lord sometimes becomes frustrated
with believers today as He did with His disciples on a certain occasion . . .
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to
him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has
seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often
into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal
him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to
be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus
rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it
out?” 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 17:14–20)
Later Jesus told them they needed to be more like children,
humbling themselves with childlike trust if they wanted greatness in His
kingdom. He also said they had to agree and be united in their prayers to experience
His presence with them (Matthew 18:3–4; 17-20)
In other words, living a life of faith requires abandoning
former values. Greatness was not about power and huge confidence in ourselves.
It was not about externals either, like prosperity and being popular or having
the admiration of others. While He used wealth in this example, He could have used
any other respected and sought-after value system to say the same thing:
“Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a
rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the
kingdom of God.”
This astonished the disciples. Their faith was too little. When
they heard Him say it, they asked, “Who
then can be saved?” Then Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all
things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23–26)
I can relate. I note the words “all things” and then listen
for my own voice that so easily mumbles: “I can’t do that” or “She will never
change” or “This is too difficult” — and listen to other believers for the
unbelief in our lives, lives that claim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but
have slid into negativity concerning the power of God to do the impossible.
I need to remember that “whatever
does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) and like any other sin,
this “little faith” needs to be confessed and forsaken, for without faith, it is impossible to please God
— and along with that doubt, in my mind a whole lot of other things become
impossible as well.
