“Increase our Faith!”

“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.” (Luke 17:5-6 ESV)

Unlike many of the previous chapters of Luke, we encounter not a parable, but an actual real-time event. If you go back a few verses, before you see the apostles asking the Lord to “Increase our faith.” You will see this same group of guys who saw Jesus feed five thousand men, plus the women and children, with just two fish and five loaves of bread. Didn’t they also see Jesus heal many of their illnesses? Weren’t these men part of the group that Jesus sent out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick? What else did they need to be convinced?

If anyone knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the Kingdom of God had arrived, it had to be these men. But what did they ask? “Increase our faith.” I love these guys, but how they must have frustrated our Savior. How many times must they have heard His message and seen His miracles? How many teachings were they exposed to, and yet all they could ask was, “Increase our faith.” I think I love these guys because they remind me of myself. How about you? Do you see yourself in them sometimes? I’m sure you do.

Jesus took this question and turned it into an explanation of faith. You see, most of us think you can measure faith, like the Apostle Paul must have had at least a bushel of faith that he carried around with him. And Peter walked on the water with Jesus; how much faith must he have had? What about Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, but ended up second only to the Pharaoh in all of Egypt? Surely, he must have had a cartload of faith.

You see, we think we can earn or work for faith, but in reality, God gives us faith to trust Him. The Greek word for our English word faith is “pistis,” a noun that comes from the verb “peitho,” meaning “to be persuaded.” We translate this word as faith, trust, belief, and confidence. But faith, trust, belief, confidence in what? You see, the real question isn’t “Do I have enough faith?” The real question is “Who is the object of my faith?”

The Apostles always had trouble with Kingdom concepts. Remember, they argued among themselves about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom. They had it all turned around, which happens often to us as well. We are so entrenched in this world's principles that we miss God’s Kingdom principles. In this world, whoever is the greatest is served by others; in the Kingdom of God, the one who serves others is the greatest.

In this world, whoever accumulates the most “stuff” is the richest, but in the Kingdom of God, whoever frees themselves of “stuff” is the richest. The Kingdom of God and this world are usually opposites. What we think is important here is irrelevant in the Kingdom of God. We need to dramatically adjust our thinking if we are ever going to understand what matters to our God. That is what Jesus was telling his apostles. Quit thinking in terms of this world’s values, like how much faith you have, and start thinking in terms of Kingdom values: in whom do you have faith?

“Peitho” (faith) is always a gift from God, not something that you can earn, deserve, or get by trying harder. The one with the “greatest” faith is the one who has more confidence in Jesus and is persuaded that He can do all things. Remember, my friend, we’ve said it many times, “Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!” It’s all about the King of the Kings.

I know some of you have felt, or feel right now, that you don’t have enough faith to trust God, but you do have enough faith because God has already given you enough faith. All you have to do is be persuaded of the proper object of your faith. We often think we don’t have enough faith in ourselves or others, and that’s where we go wrong.

We think that “We can’t get through another week, day, or hour; we just can’t trust ourselves to be faithful,” and we are right; we can’t do it! But it isn’t our faithfulness that we should have confidence in.  Our faith needs to be in God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are the truth keepers. They are the faith-givers, and they are the ones who will keep their promises, not us.

So, my friend, if you think you don’t have enough faith to be saved, you are probably right; you don’t have enough faith in you. But you do have enough faith to be persuaded that God is right, that He is trustworthy, that He is the promise-keeper, because God has given you all the faith in Him you need. You need to check the object of your faith; make sure it isn’t you, but Jesus.

And if you are a believer thinking that you don’t have enough faith to get you through another day, you are right; you don’t have enough faith in yourself to get you through. Our faith needs to be not in our ability to be faithful to God, but in the fact that our God is faithful to His Word and to us. Remind yourself in moments of doubt that it’s the object of your faith, not how much you have, that makes all the difference. So, with a Kingdom’s understanding of your God-given faith, ‘Go ahead and move that mulberry tree.’

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"