Progressive Faith

Second type of little faith is trusting ourselves, by trying to take over some 'simple' things in to our own hands thinking not to 'bother' God for those matters. We end up worrying and troubling ourselves when we find that its too difficult for us. Jesus advices us to put our trust in Him in all matters of our daily life, however simple it may seem to be, since we are so important to Him.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? - Matthew 6:30

To help ourselves to identify this type of little faith in our life, lets understand why Jesus rebuked his disciples calling them "Men of little faith" when Jesus was teaching his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. [Matthew 16.8] The disciples misunderstood it for the physical bread/food they have. We can see Jesus making them understand that for physical food, he would not be concerned at all because if he could feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 7000 with 7 loaves, for 12 disciples, he would not even need any loaves.

This type of Little faith leads to worry and arguments and blocks our spiritual mindset so that we see only the terminable things in the worldly life. Personal financial management, steering of official duties, maintaining human relationships, managing the household are certain common things we worry about because of our "little faith". We may not even make these things part of our prayer, thinking that it should be dealt by us. God wants us to just put all our burdens including the 'simple' ones to Jesus and live a worry free and tension free life. [Psalm 55.22] Yes, it is a matter or faith or trust in God. So if we are thinking too much or worrying about our life in this world, that is a sign of little faith. As Paul says in Philippians 3.13, lets forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead...

3. GROWING FAITH

We are supposed to be growing in our faith daily.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.”

The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you! - Luke 17.5,6

The first step of growing our faith is to grow it to as small as mustard seed !!! If we have that much faith, Matthew 17.20 says, nothing would be impossible for us. Yes, that is the measure of faith God gives us and we need to measure the amount of faith we have with this scale. This should not be confused with "the little faith" explained above. Mustard seed may be small, but the enormous power it hides in itself, causes it to grow to a tree which puts out great branches, so that the birds under the sky can make their nests on them. (Mark 4.30-32) Even if the size of our faith is small, it has to posses such inner quality which can grow itself to help others to get support from it. The quality, not the quantity, of the faith is what matters. In other words, growing to a faith as small as Mustard seed simply means growing to a level where we have NO DOUBT in what we believe and who we trust.