Faith~

Greetings :)


Do you think it would be cruel and/or ridiculous of me to expect a toddler to cook dinner then clean up afterward? What about asking an elderly person in a sick bed to drive themselves to the doctor? How about insisting that Rayray sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl?

All the above are unreasonable expectations. To this day no one even knows if Rayray can sing. She has not once ever sung in front of her father or me, and that one year she was in the school choir was one big lip-syncing fest. The only reason she even joined was to go on the end-of-the-year trip to Disney. As the trip approached, an overzealous mother almost had it cancelled over a ridiculous accusation, and Rachel was in spasms for days worried that all her effort would be for naught, but I digress.

Back to unreasonable expectations. We read over and over again in the Bible that in order to please God and receive answers to prayers we must have faith. How unreasonable would it be for God to expect faith from us knowing that as humans beings, seeing is believing. We have all, at one time or another, wondered if God hears us, is aware of our need, if He even cares, if He's powerful enough to help us.

Before we go on, let's define faith.

Hebrews 11:1
"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

Faith is hope that God is going to get involved and make it right even when you see no evidence of His presence. And again, He requires it in order to act on our behalf. But how do you know you have enough and how much is enough?

Look at these other verses.

Matthew 17:20
" I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Mark 9:23-24
“Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

In these verses we see the win-win situation that is always ours. God expects our faith, but He doesn't demand an exact or outrageous amount. All we need is faith the size of a mustard seed. Google mustard seed, and you will see that it is the size of a period at the end of a sentence. And even when we do believe, we can still ask God to help us overcome any unbelief.

God asks for our faith, and no matter how small, He will accept it and make it grow.

I know that as time goes by my faith grows. As I receive answers to prayers, I am strengthened to see more answers for other prayers. I can say the same about each of you. Something within each of you compels you to read these DEVOs and say the prayers at the end. Something within you is telling you that these moments spent nourishing the soul make a difference. That something is faith. How do we know we have faith? Because I wouldn't bother writing these DEVOs and you wouldn't bother reading them if we didn't believe that God exists and that He is here to help. And all it takes is a little itty bitty amount, and we all have at least a mustard seed-size faith. Did you know that the mustard seed when planted will eventually grow into a 20 foot tree? That's where we're headed folks. Glory!


PRAYER:
Dear Lord, Thank You that it only takes a little bit of faith to please You. Nevertheless, take our faith today and help it grow. We want our faith to grow as big and strong as a mustard tree so that we can encourage others around us--starting with our own families. In Jesus' name, AMEN~