God’s vision for your life is always bigger than where you are now because we’re all called to do something great! Whatever it is, trust God that there’s always more. There’s always a greater call, a greater purpose, a greater reason than you can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). God is just never finished—not with you, not with His plans for your life, and definitely not with how He wants to use you in this earth for your good, for the good of others and for His glory.
The Results When We Have Little Faith
Remember when Jesus was in the boat with the disciples and a huge storm rolled in? Jesus slept through it all, but His disciples grew absolutely terrified. When they woke Jesus because they wanted Him to save them, the first thing He said before He calmed the storm was, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” (Matthew 8:26). Then He spoke to the storm, rebuking the wind and the waves, and calming the storm.
Then there was the time when Peter got out of the boat and walked on water (Matthew 14:22-33). When Peter began to sink, the Word tells us, “When he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased” (Matthew 14:30-32, NKJV). In this instance, Peter went from having great faith to little faith.
Once, when Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth to minister, He began to teach in the synagogue. The attendees recognized Jesus as Joseph and Mary’s son, someone they perceived as ordinary, so they became offended that He dared to teach (Mark 6:3). The Word then tells us, “Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching” (Mark 6:5-6, NKJV). What Jesus could do was predicated on the measure of the people’s faith—and they had little to none.
What about the time Jesus cautioned us all?
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” (Matthew 6:25-30, NLT).
It’s hard to escape taking this one to heart, because worrying about almost everything in our lives is so easy to do—if we don’t put in the effort to build our faith on the Word of God and transform our minds with God’s thoughts instead of our own.
The Results When We Have Great Faith
One of the wonderful things about the Word of God is that it keeps on confirming itself page after page. It’s filled with promises from God to us. Peter called them exceedingly great and precious promises. They’re given to us by God to anchor our faith in Him and His Word.
“Because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:4).
When we stand on the promises of God—when we lay hold of them in our spirits and speak them in faith—we grow in our faith. We develop great faith—and faith pleases God. “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith Works!
When the centurion, who was a Roman officer, pleaded with Jesus to come and heal his servant, he had faith in Jesus. He had the kind of faith Hebrews 11:6 describes. When Jesus said He would come, the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8).
It was then that Jesus was literally amazed and turning to those who were following Him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” (Matthew 8:10). The King James Version says that Jesus marvelled at the man’s faith. The man’s faith pleased Jesus, and Jesus moved on his behalf.
Jesus did the same for the Syrophoenician woman, who is sometimes referred to as the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus asking Him to help her as her little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit. When she desperately flung herself at Jesus’ feet, His response indicated He might not heal her daughter right at that moment, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She pressed Him further to which He responded, “Good answer…Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter” (Mark 7:29).
Because of her great faith, and its persistence, Jesus healed her daughter. “When she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone” (Mark 7:30).
The natural man says, “Seeing is believing.” The born-again spirit man says, “Believing is seeing.” Continue to allow your spirit, not your mind, to be the guiding force in your life. Then when you look at something, you’ll no longer see it from the perspective of a problem but from the perspective of God’s WORD, and you will see Him fulfil it.
