How Much Faith Do You Need?
I preached earlier this week at Minnesota Teen and Adult Challenge, one of the most successful drug and addiction rehabilitation programs in America today. It is faith-based around the Person of Jesus Christ as hope in pain and addiction.
The message God placed on my heart was on the subject of faith. Faith is the stuff that moves the Kingdom of God on earth. If God is going to do something in our lives, it most always comes by faith on our part, and grace on God's part.
The thought that has been rumbling around in my heart lately is "How much faith do you need for God to move on your behalf?"
The response as I've studied Scripture sounds a bit like Dr. Suess: Great faith is great. But how much faith do you need God to move? Even the littlest amount will do.
Jesus shows us this in Luke 17:5-6: "The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” 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."
All we really need is the smallest amount of faith ... a poppy seed of faith (poppy seed is more fun to say than mustard seed) ... and God by His grace will move on our behalf.
The reason this has been so meaningful to me lately is after reading a book by missionary legend Huldah Buntain Pathways to the Impossible. We have spent a handful of weekends with Huldah, including some time with her in her stomping grounds in Calcutta.
She writes in her most recent book about the struggle of faith as her husband Mark Buntain had passed away unexpectedly. Mark had been the one with the great faith. He had begun all sorts of projects that needed financial support and a lot of work to finish, and she was the only one left around to finish them.
Over and over again she mentions that she didn't have the great faith that Mark had, BUT she knew that God needed our faith, so she worked up the little faith she had and patiently waited, prayed and worked to see the miracle through. One of her statements on this kind of faith is that she "took it one day at a time." A statement I have heard from several other legends of the faith.
So wherever you are at, and whatever you need God to do in your life: know that God needs our faith in order to move, but even if it is hard to pull together a great amount of faith, just know even the littlest amount will do, and wait, pray and work to see God move on your behalf.
Hebrews 11:6: "It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him."
