Luke and The Lost
Imagine a scrawny little first grader on the school playground. A couple of older, bigger boys attempt to harass him and cause him trouble. Apparently it started on the bus earlier that morning. As the teacher on playground patrol, I saw it immediately and was walking over to intervene when this first grader rose up with all the height he could muster and said, “Leave me alone. Who are you to tell me what to do!” To my surprise the older boys backed down. This little boy stood up to his giants with a faith that rivaled David’s as he slew his giant, Goliath. Maybe the older boys saw me coming or maybe they were shocked at the response they got from the little one and decided to walk away.
Faith. We either have it or we don’t. People spend a lot of time trying to measure our faith with how we respond to life, I suppose. But Jesus gets right to the point of faith. You don’t earn it, ask for it or develop it, you just have it. Faith in God moves us from place to place with simple obedience to Him with a heart’s desire to please God, KNOWING that He has our back. We know He goes before us, is beside us, His Holy Spirit living in us and always provides where He guides. Do you have it or not? Faith is a special “knowing” that God is always with us.
Let Jesus explain it…
Luke 17, The Message
A Kernel of Faith
17 1-2 He said to his disciples, “Hard trials and temptations are bound to come, but too bad for whoever brings them on! Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim in the deep blue sea than give even one of these dear little ones a hard time!
3-4 “Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”
6 But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Forgive our lack of faith when we rely on self alone. You are the Source of our faith and our life. Thank you for having our backs and always being with us.
In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe.
