Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Luke 17:5, “And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.'”

Background

I suppose that you receive prayer requests from others throughout the week. Your Sunday school class probably has a weekly list of the needs and concerns of its members, and you might even be on a church-wide e-mail list or prayer chain. If you take part in any evangelistic or outreach prayer activity, then you may even be praying for people you have never met and ones who have many of the same types of requests. I am involved in one of these prayer ministries. And lately, my time spent in prayer for their needs has been abysmal. Then recently, as I was reading over some of the requests, I realized that I didn’t believe in what I was doing. At least I didn’t believe in its effectiveness. For regardless of what I might say, if I believed that my prayers could make a difference in these people’s lives, these lives that struggled to make ends meet and believe that there’s a God who cares about them, then I would be praying faithfully for them. If I knew that I could talk to God about a stranger’s trials and worries and He would ease their pain and give them His grace and mercy, then I would make time to do it. How could I not?

Application

But apparently I don’t. Or at least I didn’t. For as I read the prayer requests, I wondered how else these people were going to discover and experience the God who can do all things if I didn’t believe that He really could do all things. My faith needed serious strengthening. I was worn down by not knowing how these repeated prayers could help someone’s health or job situation because my faith had been in my prayers, instead of in my God. We generally have no shortage of faith. We have it a plenty and place it in things without even realizing it. But our faith in God and His working cannot be replaced by our dependence on our performance or involvement or time. When that occurs, the flame begins to fade, and defeat is just around the corner. When we ask God to increase our faith, make sure that we are seeking faith in Him. Not us and Him. Not His program or ministry. Him.

Charge

As we seek Him today, go no further than that. Whatever that might mean in your situation, ask Him for more faith in Him.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words