journey onWord with us

One of the many things I LOVE about scripture is how the Spirit can use a well-worn single phrase, verse or entire portion of scripture and bring it into view at just the right time in your life to bring hope, healing, encouragement or challenge.  Truth is the same yesterday and today and forever (just as is said of Jesus in Hebrews 13:8), but its application in our lives can be as new as the circumstance we find ourselves in right at this very moment.  This is the living and breathing power of God’s Word in any age and at any time.

This idea of power (in forgiving, healing and judgement) is a recurring theme in a chapter in Luke we read only a short time ago.  And it’s at the heart of the disciples response to Jesus’ standard of forgiveness.

The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”
Luke 17:5  MSG

It seems a bit odd, but on deeper consideration totally plausible, that the disciples would ask for more faith in living up to the standard Jesus had just set for forgiving someone.

Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” forgive him.
Luke 17:4  MSG

This wouldn’t be the world’s wisdom in responding to repeated hurt.  In our own selves, it isn’t ours either.  Would you have answered back as the apostles did?  I think we can easily hear ourselves saying the very same words to Jesus.  “But Jesus, did you hear what they said?!  Did you see what they did?! And this isn’t just the seventh time they’ve said or done it either!  It can’t be okay for them to keep saying or doing it, is it?!  You can’t want me to be walked all over, right?!  Alright, I heard you, but I’m going to need more faith if I’m ever going to come close to forgiving them again!”  I wonder if any of that was going through the heads of the apostles that day.

Jesus’ response begins with one of those “well-worn single phrases” I referred to as I began this post.  They are a handful of words that most, if not all of us, would readily recognize (maybe not in the exact words of “The Message” text) …

But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.
Luke 17:6  MSG

“You don’t need more faith.”  That must have been a response  the disciples didn’t see coming.  And I wonder if it’s one that we really believe.  I’ve heard and repeated, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed ” many times over, but as I read and allowed the words to settle deeper, new life was breathed into that “seed” of truth.

As I navigate through life and its many uphill moments and seasons, it seems my call is most often for “more” … more time, more presence, more healing, more patience, more peace, more power, more faith.  Jesus is clear in responding that we don’t need “more.”  We only need a minute measure of pure faith to possess the kind of power which uproots a mature, stalwart tree.  Romans 8:11 tells us that if we believe, we have the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead living in us.  A truth you’ve, no doubt, heard many times before but take a minute and let that settle deeper.  The exact same power as raised Jesus from the dead is within all who believe … is inside of ME … is inside of YOU.

The pace of human technology is traveling at light speed.  In the design, research and manufacture of Intel’s most recent computer processor chip, researchers created transistors so small that it was calculated 30 million of them could fit on the head of a pin.  Yet as powerful as “30 million on the head of a pin” sounds, it is dwarfed by resurrection power.

Let us not be found asking for “more.”  Let us rather focus on becoming less, and tapping into the bottomless well of resurrection power found deep inside each of us.  Let us live and forgive in that power.