Faith; No More, No Less...

Day 9

You may have noticed I didn't write anything on Day 8...I skipped a day...you'll get over it ;-). As part of the journey I am reading the New Testament over 30 days. I often change versions of the Bible for a period of time just to get fresh perspective. As I'm reading through the N.T., this time I am using the Message Bible. It is not a literal translation, but is instead a paraphrase version. Which means someone read the original scriptural manuscripts and paraphrased it in simple English. I wouldn't conclude doctrine from a paraphrase version, but it certainly is insightful as the Holy Spirit uses it to allow us to view scripture in a fresh, new way. All that said, I read a verse in Luke 17 today that make me think & research. Read it below.

Luke 17 (The Message Bible)
⁵The apostles (disciples) came up and said to the Master (Jesus), "Give us more faith." ⁶But 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.

Let me clarify a few things. First, Romans 12:3 tells us that God has given each Christian a measure of faith. Second, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 that he is proud of Thessalonian church because their faith is growing more and more. So we've established that God gives us faith and that our faith can grow. I felt it important to clarify that because some might read these versed from the Message Bible as a contradiction, when in fact they're not really talking about this.

Evaluate the disciples requests; they are saying to Jesus "give us more faith." And the simplified version of Jesus response is (my paraphrased version of a paraphrased version, are you confused yet?), "More faith? Take what you have, even if your faith is as small as a mustard seed, and use it! That much faith can move a mountain if you just use it."

Now let me share how this verse struck me. Have you ever prayed for more faith? Me too. But in my research of scriptures so far, I haven't found where we are encouraged to "pray for faith." I did a word search in the New International Version of the Bible (considered by Bible scholars to be the most accurate translation of the original transcripts) and the word faith appears 256 times. I read all 265 verses and not once did it say that we should "pray for faith." I found that interesting since I've been doing it for at least 20 years. If Jesus hadn't been present, basically the disciples would have been praying for more faith. It was their cop-out. "If only we had more faith we could do amazing things for you Jesus." Jesus was saying, "Look, faith is not an excuse. If you have as much as a grain of mustard seed, you've got enough. Now step out and use the faith you have, then when you begin to see me move mountains in your life, your faith will grow! Then you'll have more faith!"

Stop praying for faith....stop thinking that when you get "enough" faith you will start doing something for God....just start using (exercising) the measure of faith you have right now and watch how God's faithfulness explodes in your life.....then the end result will be more faith.

Think about it!