As a 'church kid' I have grown up with something of an understanding of God and of Jesus.
At sunday school I learnt the Old and New Testament stories of all the incredible things that God has done.
And then in Youth Groups I learnt that the same God that did all those incredible things lives in me; His power is in me.
If I had a pound for every sermon or talk that has since reminded me of this I'd have.... some pounds.
But do I get it?
Do I genuinely understand this incredible idea?
If I do get it how does that change my life?
I have the pleasure of running a Youth Group on a wednesday evening and this week during the bible study one of the young people asked a very poignant question....
"If I don't have faith that I could tell a mountain to move and it would, does that mean my faith is smaller than a mustard seed?"
The answer that was given was a good one but is very easily said and perhaps quite a challenge to live in....
"It doesn't matter how much faith you have; it matters what your faith is in"
How true is that. If it does make sense, which I sort of think that it does, it doesn't matter whether you're brimming over with faithful expectation or you're hesitantly edging forwards- if your faith is in the God that I believe in He can still do incredible things.
Ultimately if we believe that how much God can do is directly proportional to how much faith we have isn't that sort of implying that it's down to us what happens and not God?
When we see a miracle is it because we are really excellent christians and we had tonnes of faith; enough that God could do something special?
Or is it because God is incredibly powerful and even through our tiniest glimmer of faith He can do infinitely more than we could imagine?
If our faith is in a God that is both all-loving and all-powerful then if we give him just a little bit of our faith isn't He powerful enough to turn up and do cool stuff? I think He is.
And all of this discussion so far has missed one very major point. 'Where is your faith?' is an important question, but perhaps more important is the question 'Where is your faith from?'
"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Romans 12:3
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." Romans 12:3
You see God gives us faith. In Luke 17:5 the disciples ask Jesus for more faith and I think this is where we ought to focus.
If we begin to think that God works because of our great faith that seems somewhat arrogant and hence flawed, because how can something that comes from us cause miracles?
But if we ask God for faith, and know that he is good to answer (Matthew 7:7) then we know that we now have enough faith, by the grace of God alone, to see Him do incredible things.
How do we turn that from just being head-knowledge and sunday school lessons into actual heart-felt conviction and truth? Well maybe we need to start stepping out of the boat so that we can see God's awesome power in our lives.
Not easy, but if we can do that it's gonna be pretty cool!
