[The boy's father said,] "... If you can do anything,
do it. Have a heart and help us!" Jesus said, "If? There are no ‘ifs' among believers. Anything can happen."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!"
Mark
9:22-24 (MSG)
Is it possible to be filled with faith and doubt at the same time? Yes!
You can have faith
that God wants you to do something and still be scared to death. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is going ahead
and doing what you're called to do in spite of your fear.
You have to begin with the faith you already have: it
may be just a little, but you start there. A beautiful example of this is the story of the man who brought his sick son to
Jesus in Mark 9. Jesus looked at the man and said, "I can heal your son. If you will believe, I will heal him."
The father then makes a classic statement: "Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief."
Have
you ever felt like that? "Lord, I have some faith. But I also have some doubts." This man was filled with faith
and doubt, yet despite his honest doubts, he went ahead and asked Jesus for a miracle. And he got his miracle - Jesus healed
his son.
Mustard seed faith moves mountains. No matter how weak or how frail you think your faith is, it's enough
to get you through what you're facing because your "little faith" is in a big God.
Matthew 17:20 says,
"If you have faith as small as the mustard seed, nothing will be impossible to you." That's not a lot of faith;
in fact, it's just a little faith. But what else does that verse teach? "If you have faith as the mustard seed, you
can say to the mountain, ‘Move' and it will be moved."
Mustard seed faith moves mountains. Don't
get this reversed; we tend to read this verse backward; we want it to say, "If you have faith like a mountain, you can
move a mustard seed" - as if it takes enormous faith to do a very little task.
Everybody has faith. You had faith
this morning when you ate your cereal - faith that your spouse didn't put poison in your granola!
You had faith
when you sat down in your computer chair - faith that it wouldn't collapse.
Everybody has faith; the difference
is what you put your faith in.
Sometimes people will tell me they don't want to surrender to Jesus until all their
questions are answered; they don't want to make a commitment until every thing is understand.
God wants you start
with the faith you have; and based on the example of the mustard seed, you don't need a whole lot of faith to do great
things for God. You just need a little.
So here's a trustworthy equation:
Little Faith + Big
God = Huge Results!
· You take your little faith; "Lord, I believe! Help me with my unbelief!"
·
And you place your faith in our big God,
· And then he'll show you how he works out huge results.
© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.
