micro-faiths

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Luke 17:5

Jesus’ favorite way to talk about His disciples’ commitment was to regularly remind them they were of “little faith” — literally “micro-faiths” was their nickname as a group. So we should not be surprised that as Jesus gave them some hard to follow teaching, they would cry this request out sincerely to the Master.

Jesus had just spoken on some hard subjects that are counter-intuitive to our default human wiring: 1) Forgiving an offense without reservation… repeatedly (Luke 17:1-4). 2) Rejection by the world even when Jesus would rise from the dead (Luke 16:19-31). 3) The consequences of a casual view of marriage and divorce (Luke 16:18). 4) The complete fulfillment of all the Law in Jesus (Luke 16:14-17), and 5) The stewardship of earthly possessions for maximum eternal impact (Luke 16:1-13). “Increase our faith!” Indeed!

When Jesus is the sole object of our faith, no matter how hard the circumstances of following Him, no matter how heavy the opposition from those opposed to Him, no matter how challenging the relationships we live in, we can always see Him lead us through. Lord…Increase our faith by increasing our view of You as we follow You no matter how counter-intuitive to our natural impulses the life you ask of us may seem!