Jesus replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” (Luke 17:6, NIV)
You don’t need much to get started at golf. There’s one school of instruction that says that if you can learn to play well with your driver, wedge and putter, you’re most of the way to good golf. Think of it—just three clubs!
When it comes to faith, though, most people seem to think in terms of all or nothing. They’ve read of Jesus shriveling a full-grown tree and declaring that the faith of a mustard seed could move a mountain. And because these dear folks have never moved a mountain, they fall into dismay: I don’t even have faith so small as that!
But let’s consider another passage, the one noted today in Luke 17, where Jesus again seemed to speak of great outcomes of faith. We encounter difficulties when we ignore the context. For Jesus’ talk of uprooting a mulberry tree did not stand alone; it followed the cry of the disciples, “Increase our faith!”
You can make the move to eliminate faith’s hindrances, even if you have to do so one by one.
Could it be, then, that Jesus was providing a vital piece of instruction here? Could it be that he was saying this: “If you have even a tiny bit of faith, you have enough faith to get started. You have enough faith to say to the things in your life that need to be weeded out, ‘It’s time for you to leave’”?
You see, this not only makes sense as a response to the disciples’ urgently expressed desire. It also flows into what comes next in the passage. For here Jesus spoke of the move into servanthood, an activity greatly provoked by humble faith. At the end of all this serving, Jesus taught, the righteous servants would not be proud, but rather would say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” In case you haven’t noticed, that kind of attitude isn’t developed overnight. It is grown in the long run.
Check your faith-o-meter. Are you one of those who would say the needle is on Low? Here’s good news. Low is high enough to get started. You can make the move to eliminate faith’s hindrances, even if you have to do so one by one. Do this each day, and you’ll love the end result!
—
Jeff Hopper
Originally published February 11, 2011
Copyright 2011 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Photo by niko photos on Unsplash