Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
When the friends of Jesus asked him for more faith, he told them they didn’t need more; just use the faith they already had.
Not long ago, I fell down some stairs and hurt my lower back. Although I didn’t break any bones, the pain persisted, and I eventually started seeing a physical therapist. Now I spend a small portion of each day stretching injured muscles. I know if I don’t follow through on the exercises, I will never get rid of the pain.
Like faith.
We will never reach a time in life as followers of Christ when we don’t need to practice exercising our faith. But I’m afraid we sometimes kick our faith into autopilot. Although we don’t stop loving God, we deny his power and let doubt weaken the vibrancy we once knew. Then we take a spill and realize how much intentionality it takes to restore our atrophied beliefs.
Or sometimes the spill itself causes more damage than we realize. Instead of seeing our disappointments, our “injuries,” through the lens of faith, we try to move on without getting to the root of the problem. With my back injury, I’m cautious as to how I sit, stand, and roll over. And we become limited in our spiritual abilities when faith no longer guides our behavior. We’re confined to what we think or imagine when God wants us to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Exercising faith requires us to take risks, no matter how long we’ve been followers of Jesus. My friends, Deb and Doug Tunney, have served in various ministries for over fifty years. After founding YWAM bases in Pittsburgh and Boston, four years ago the Lord told them to build a base in Philadelphia. Now in their seventies, it didn’t make sense to take on a new project. But because they have never stopped exercising their faith, they were ready for the call.
So I want to exercise my faith as diligently as I do my back. I’m asking God to help me listen for his voice and, in faith, do whatever he tells me to do.
How about you? Ready to uproot some mulberry trees!