The Gift of Faith

Good afternoon, friends of the Lord Jesus! The readings for this coming Sunday are as follows. Psalm 62; Habakkuk 1:1-4;2:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:1-10. The keyword for this Sunday is “faith”. God tells the frustrated and angry prophet Habbakkuk to have faith in God’s vision of better things to come. Paul happily points out the “sincere faith” of the young pastor Timothy. Jesus tells his overwhelmed and underqualified apostles they need “faith like a mustard seed.” And who among us hasn’t wished our own faith in God were stronger, more consistent, and more certain? We get ourselves into trouble when we think of faith as a natural ability like throwing a good spiral or figuring out a math problem. Too often this leads to the despair of wondering what’s wrong with us that we struggle with fear and doubts. But faith is not natural to any of us. It comes to us always and only as a gift given freely and daily by the God who loves us and called us to faith in the first place. The apostles may have had the wrong understanding of what faith was, but at least they were asking the right person! Lord Jesus, please give me the faith I need for this day and help that faith – small though it be – to grow like the mustard seed so I can be a blessing to others. Amen.