“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (Luke 17:5-6 KJV)
Spiritual growth is my prayer for this New Year. It’s not a resolution — I know how tenuous and short-lived they can be! Once I’d set out to memorize a Scripture verse each day of the year. It lasted until about the middle of February.
Another time I resolved to begin every day at a certain time in a certain way. Some days I managed to achieve it and most days didn’t. The frustration of having failed caused me to give up and quit the resolution thing.
It was the same with efforts to muster the kind of faith I had seen in elder saints who lived in our neighborhood where I grew up. Men and women who gave away personal finances knowing that “our God will provide from his riches in glory.” Men and women confident of God’s action in the face of impossibilities. Men and women certain that Jesus was coming back as promised. How I longed for this kind of faith!
Like me, the Lord’s apostles thought more faith was the answer. “Increase our faith,” they said to Jesus. Yet, we can almost envision him shaking his head as he said, “It’s not the amount of faith that works. If your faith was no bigger than a mustard seed, it would be enough to overcome every obstacle.”
So, I began asking the Lord for mustard seed faith. Faith that could uproot any undesirable “sycamine tree” growing in my life. God invites me to fully trust him in simple ways everyday. Sometimes it’s just trust for the day. Other times it’s faith for healing, faith for church finances, faith for people issues, and on and on. Mustard seed faith for each day’s needs.
And oddly enough when I trust God with mustard seed faith, I somehow increase in spiritual maturity. So, my new year prayer is for more spiritual growth — more personal sycamine trees to be uprooted and cast in the sea of deliverance.
Dear Father, thank you for mustard seed faith. Enable us to exercise it against the personal issues that confront us everyday. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be encouraged today in your spiritual growth,