Where Is Your Faith?

Did you notice this? I have to admit, I missed it.

From Luke 8: 23-25 (NLT)

23 As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.

24 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

When Jesus woke up, He rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. 25 Then He asked them, “Where is your faith?”

Where is your faith?

Often in the midst of challenges and trials, we “put on our thinking caps,” “roll up our sleeves” and expend large amounts of “blood, sweat and tears” just like the disciples. Among this group of devoted disciples were fishermen; men gifted and experienced in handling a boat on the Sea of Galilee. In these circumstances, any faith (all their faith?) placed in their know-how and experience did not resolve their crisis. Instead, despair multiplied, fear assumed monstrous proportions, and they doubted the love and compassion of the Lord for them. Their “faith had not saved them.” That’s a dark place… and REALLY SCARY.

Jesus had spoken that the faith “necessary” was that the size of a mustard seed… that’s very small, tiny even. But what has captured my attention here is not the size of the disciples’ faith, but its placement. Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?” Where will you place it?

As I pondered this, I felt that my first response should be to ask Jesus. That takes but a nano second; to turn my mind from self-reliance to Spirit-reliance. Perhaps the Lord does want me to work through the current circumstances employing the gifts and talents with which the Spirit has endowed me. Maybe it is intended for me to expend great amounts of energy, to give of myself fully and freely, holding nothing back.

On the other hand, perhaps the Lord wants me to see Him with fresh eyes; experience His authority in a new realm. For the disciples, the nature of this storm took them to the end of themselves and into a still deeper witness of the authority of Jesus.

So, whether the situation is simple or complex, take that nano-second to pause and ask Jesus, “How do You want to handle this?” In so doing, the answer to the question, “Where is your faith?” we an say firmly, “IN JESUS!”