| So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. |
I am always astonished when someone commended that he/she does not have sufficient faith for certain prayer and would like to have someone more 'spiritually matured', such as a church leader, to pray with him/her.
What this meant is that some of us think that God answers prayers based on the 'size' of our faith, is this true?
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to His disciples that even if their faith is as small as a mustard seed, they can speak to a mountain asking it to move and it will move! (Mat 17:20).
In the same gospel, Jesus was marveled by and commended on the 'great faith' of the centurion (Mat 8:10).
In fact, only two persons in the whole Bible were commended by Jesus to have great faith, the centurion and the Canaanite woman (Mat 15:28) and they are both non-Jew.
What this meant is that when we are looking at our own faith at ourselves, as in the case of the disciples, our 'great' faith is as if as none! We can't even move an atom, let alone a mountain! However, it was different for the centurion and Canannite woman, who's faith was on Jesus' ability.
Therefore, what matters is not the size of our faith because:
1. If our faith is on our own ability and merit, then even we have 'great' faith, there won't be any result.
2. If our faith is on Jesus' ability and merit, then even if the faith is 'small', the result will be perfect.
However, the size of our faith, does have influence how deep are we rooted in His Rest! (Jer 17:8). And the good news is that faith comes to us when we hear, and hear the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).
The more we hear Christ-centered sermons on the pulpits, the more faith will come to us and more deep rooted we will be in His Rest, that when the heat of challenges is on us, we can continue to stay healthy and prosper, regardless of how long is this period of challenges, and most important, we continue to bear fruits that benefit others, thus glorify God, without ceasing, AMEN!
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