Faith, It Grows

Jesus said, "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. Nothing will be impossible for you."

But moving a mountain was just the beginning. Towards the end of His ministry Jesus promised His disciples (and us) that we "will do what [He] has been doing. [That we] will do even greater things than these because [He was] going to the Father."

And Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. Jesus kept His word but have we acted on it?

Have we planted our seed of faith to reap more faith in God?
Have we moved the mountain with the seed we have already been given?

In Matthew 25, Jesus shares a parable about the talents. Before a man leaves on a journey, he gives each of his servants talents. He gave five to one, two to another and one to the last. In the bible it says that each man was given "according to his ability." Then after their master leaves, each servant deals with his own lot. The one who received five went to work and doubled his talents. The one who received two did the same and got two more. But the last servant who got one hid his talent until the master returned.

When the master returned, the two servants, who profited from their deposit, pleased the master and were put in charge of more. However when the servant returned the one that he received, the master was infuriated, especially after hearing his servant's excuse,

"Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours."

The master then took the last servant's talent and gave it to the first, who now had an ability of ten talents, and threw the scared servant out.

God doesn't want us to be the servant full of fear. We are His image bearers. Every good and praiseworthy thing that reside within us are a reflection of His glory. We are not meant to be hidden. We are not meant to play it safe. Our lives are a beacon full of His light meant to bring the broken back home to Him.

And in order to do that we have to sow the seed of faith in our hands. It's only after that moment will God begin to stir even more faith inside of our hearts.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, 

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground; 

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until He comes and showers righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

Righteousness = Faith = Believing in God

One encouraging thing from the Matthew 25 passage is that our faith can grow. The first two servants doubled their ability.

Your ability of faith won't stay the same. So don't compare your faith to that of another. That's not fair or conducive. Everyone has a different walk with God. The only thing that's the same is the God we serve. The way He is with one, He wants to be with you. But that takes time; don't give up.

Your level of faith has to change when you put your hope in God.
It won't stay the same.
It can't stay the same because what you believe God is able to do, He is willing to do more.
God is limitless: He will always surprise you, always out-give you.

So how do we grow?

1. Ask: "Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
2. Lean on Him: Don't do this alone. Don't do it in your own strength. Don't rely on your ability. Remember you have access to all of Him. When you are weak, He is strong.
3. Stand: Stand on His word even when it hurts, when it doesn't make sense, when it's easier to just walk away and quit, stand. Your knees may be shaking but His word is firm. It stands forever. He doesn't lie. He doesn't change His mind. You can stand, kneel, sit, you can lie down, if you have to; His word will never pull out from under you. You can rest in it.
4. Pray: Talk to Him. Hand over your worries to Him. Then listen to Him. He wants to lead you, He wants to help you but you have to be open to Him. You don't have to beg Him for His attention. He's already captivated by you. He wants to share His heart with you.
5. Walk in His word: "Faith, without works, is dead." James 2:17. A seed remains a seed if it remains in your hand. It's only when you put it in the ground does it grow. The same can be said of God's promises. It remains a promise, an outlandish idea, if you decide to camp outside of the promise land. But when you decide to walk towards what He has for you, then a harvest comes. 
6. Know Him: The third servant did not sow his talent because he thought he knew his master. He had a small perspective of his master that caused him to act small with his talent. When you know God, you're able to see yourself clearly: all of who He is rests inside of you and nothing will scare you because "He who is inside you is greater than he who is in this world."

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This post has been hard to write. I think God first brought the Hosea verse to my attention a month ago. The word righteousness was repeated twice in the same passage and I didn't realize it at first when I wrote about it two years ago. But what I felt Him saying this time around was "Believe in Me for this and I'll give you reason to believe in Me for more."

When you believe in God for something and He fulfills it, it gives you a chance to believe in Him for something else until there comes a time when it's in your nature to trust Him to be there for you, when you trust Him with your whole life even with all the bumps along the way.

When you sow faith, you reap more of it. You open yourself to more opportunities to trust in Him. And there will never be an end of it because God is inexhaustible. He has no limits.

I guess the difficulty I found in writing this was the seeds that were tight in my hands, the ones I have yet to plant. Writing these words convicted me and I would rather write from a safe place of already arriving. 

I have seeds in my hands and I'm scared to plant them cause who knows how they're going to turn out. But one thing He wanted to assure us of is that in the planting, in the toiling, in the plowing we will be met by His love, His faithfulness will be seen. 

We will see Him and know Him a bit better each and every time we plant.

No matter the outcome, He will meet with us and reveal Himself to us.

I think that's better than any harvest that could ever come from these seeds.