Faith

A Tiny Seed

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

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 17:6 ESV

If you are a little like me, you probably find yourself sometimes praying “Lord please, give me more faith!” When we feel like we are drowning in a sea of fear and we try grasping at straws floating on the water’s surface. But our good news for today is that Jesus did not require us to have a large quantity of faith. In fact during His time on earth,

Jesus seemed to take special delight in people who struggled to believe. After watching the Lord multiply bread for five thousand men the disciples got worried when they ran out of bread in their boat. He sat and talked to a woman by a well who probably never darkened the doors of her synagogue. He healed a man’s son after the father confessed his unbelief and made a special appearance for Thomas when he refused to believe the others about the resurrection. Imported from phone 065

So on nights when it feels like you are going under for the third time remember that our Lord loves to walk out on the water in the middle of storms. He came for the widow, the orphan and the poor. Jesus is moved when we pray with even a tiny seed of faith. When we trust the heart of God we will discover that He is ready to move anything blocking our path and help our faith to flower no matter where we are planted!

 

Every Knee

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In Philippians Paul assures us that one day every knee will bow before Jesus. How strange it must have seemed to Jesus that at this time of the abuse and mockery the Roman soldiers were the first to bow before Him as King.

In our own situations remember that God is still in control. No matter how harsh or bitter our circumstances appear in the moment, God continues to keep us in the palm of His hand. Just six hours later, as these same brutal soldiers listened, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness. Just six hours later one of them turned and really saw Jesus for the first time and declared, “Truly this was the Son of God!! Matthew 27:54

No More Lazy Grace!

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For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Romans 12:3

Do you battle with fear sometimes? I definitely do! I love God’s promises in

The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1

But there are times when I just wish that God would deal with my fear by His grace. But just like Adam and Eve’s failure in the garden we have all been bungling things up when we believe God is going to work things out by grace, without our participation. What we are calling grace; God may call simple laziness. The issue is not God’s lack of grace; but our lack of action. Yes, of course God is sovereign, almighty and all knowing; but for His own purposes He designed us not to be. I often pray for God to remove my fears; but Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled…” In other words He put me in the driver’s seat and contrary to the song it’s me -not Jesus- who has to take the wheel!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NIV

So when I asked myself, “How did Jesus deal with fear?”  I remembered the cross. There in humiliation and pain He endured. His confidence was not based on some heroic stoicism, but in the confidence that despite his abandonment and suffering, there was a joy that lay ahead. At the sixth hour, as His strength reached its end and His vision grew dark but He chose to believe in something He could not see – our salvation and forgiveness. So in those moments when I am afraid, I will remember that He was afraid too.  But three days later, on a morning He could not see from the cross, the stone rolled away and He rose and sorrow and mourning flew away!

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