Have a Little Faith

How many times have you been told – you need to just have a little faith?  

The world looks at faith as blind acceptance of something that doesn’t make sense.  That is definitely not the meaning of faith, but the unbelieving world has to maintain this stereotype in order to dismiss people of faith – people who believe in God and His Son, Jesus. 

Faith is, in general, the persuasion in our minds that something - a certain statement or something we believe in, is true.

Faith’s primary ingredient is trust.  A thing is true, it’s worthy of trust because of the evidence that it rests on.

Faith is the result of knowing that evidence.  But faith also includes in it - acceptance.  We have to accept the evidence in order for us to trust.

Of course before we accept evidence of anything, we have to know that the source of that evidence is true – infallible.  And we have to accept it.

Where do we find evidence that we can trust God?  Is God reliable?  

There are many good resources demonstrating the reliability of the Bible, in which we find just how trustworthy God is.  You may want to read some of them.  My favorite is Josh McDowell's "Evidence That Demands a Verdict."

If we study the Bible carefully, we will find a continuous record of the events of the children of God. We will find prophecies that have been fulfilled – prophecies about the Nation of Israel and prophecies about Christ.

We will find many writings in the Bible that help us to understand God’s nature and His love for us – to give us evidence for our trust.

But another way we can learn to trust (have faith) in Him is through experience. Our experience is evidence with a big "E."

  

I remember when our children were young.  We frequently visited the swimming pool in the neighborhood.  Our son, Curt would stand at the edge of the pool and when his daddy said, “jump in – I’ll catch you.”  He jumped!  Why?  Because he had faith - not faith in the water – that water was deep and cold.  Not faith that he could swim - Curt couldn’t swim.  He was a little afraid, but he trusted his dad.  He had the faith to jump because he trusted the reliability of his father.  He had learned that, if his dad said he’d do something – he did. It was because of the constancy of the relationship.  

Now, if Ron had told another child to jump, he would have caught that child as well, but another child would likely not jump.  Why?  Because he wouldn’t know that he could trust that man.  That doesn’t change the reliability of the one doing the catching.  It just changes the trust in the mind of that other child.

The Bible tells us about the reliability of God – of the one doing the catching.

If you’ve walked with Him for many years, I'm sure you will have found Him trustworthy.  

I believe there have been times that God has been there for you, times when He’s provided just the right kind of help you needed, times when He caught you up when you fell and when He held you up out of the HOT water you’d gotten yourself in to.

 

But sometimes we still get a little quiver in our stomach when He asks us to jump off the side of the pool, when He asks us to trust Him in the events of our lives, don’t we? 

Do you remember in Mark 9 - there was a man whose son was possessed by evil spirits.  The man asked Jesus to heal him, if He could.  Jesus said anything is possible for the one who believes.  The man said – Lord, I believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief. 

You know what happened don’t you?  Jesus cast those spirits out of the boy.  The father wanted to believe, and asked Jesus to help him believe and that was good enough.

So, when you are overwhelmed and wonder how you can possibly trust God to help you in your troubles, ask Him to help you trust – to help you have faith.  Do you feel that God won’t answer if you’re a little unsure?  

The Bible says that you just need mustard seed faith. 

Matthew 17:20 tells us
“. . . . Truly I tell you, 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.” 

I remember when all I had was a tiny bit of mustard seed sized faith during a terrible time in my life – but it was enough to hang on to.  How about you?

Psalm 91 says,  

"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.  He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge.   His faithfulness will be your shield." 

The Bible promises that God will be our shelter, our refuge and fortress.  Isn’t that a beautiful picture of him covering you with His feathers?

Psalm 9:10 tells us,
"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."

Trust in Him.  He will not forsake you!