Increase our FAITH!

On the mountain, Jesus revealed His divine glory to Peter, James, and John.

The four had just re-joined the rest of the disciples and the present crowd, when a desperate father threw himself before Jesus and pleaded, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” Matthew 17:15–16

Jesus’s response must have caught everyone off-guard:

“O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” Matthew 17:17

Tough words!

Who was Jesus calling faithless and twisted? Let’s just keep it simple, we are in the count. But from Matthew's point of view, were the disciples faithless? They did try to cast out the demon. Wasn’t that faith? Perhaps. But whatever faith was present, it didn’t produce any results. Jesus didn’t commend their effort; instead He rebuked their failure.

Later, when the disciples privately asked Jesus why they had failed: “Because of your little faith” Matthew 17:20. Jesus put the blame on their little faith.

But like all of Jesus’s rebukes to His disciples, His rebuke is not intended to condemn but to urge us to press in further. If we at this moment, have little faith, it is possible for us to have more faith. If we failed yesterday, we don’t have to continue to fail today. 

For this is what Jesus followed it up with:

“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew 17:20

“nothing will be impossible to you.” Those are not empty words. How would you live differently if you really believed that nothing would be impossible for you?

We are meant to move mountains — to see the impossible occur through our exercise of faith in the promises of an Omnipotent God. If we are not seeing mountains move then we have not yet begun to live the life of faith. 

If we recognize that we have little faith, let us join the apostles with a pleading to God, “Increase our faith” Luke 17:5, and not let God go until He blesses us with an answer. It is a request that He loves to grant.

Jesus really does mean for us to move mountains. He wants us to live in the bold joy of knowing that nothing will be impossible for us.

Never give up no matter what you are through,

For there’s always a TODAY,

And a chance to start anew.