"... reaching forth unto those things which are before ...
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus "
(Philippians 3:13-14)
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster
THE QUALITY OF FAITH
"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,
Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing
shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20)
Alan L. Barrow
THE disciples did a very sensible thing when they consulted Christ about their failure. Having explained to them their unbelief, the Lord made the astounding comment to them that all they needed was "faith as a grain of mustard seed". This should come as a great comfort to us, for however modest we may be we surely feel that we can provide that amount of faith. When we [87/88] think of removing mountains, however, we may be puzzled unless, realising that the Lord Himself never performed that kind of spectacular sensation, we understand that what He referred to were not literal mountains but mountainous obstacles to the will of God.
The challenge to us is whether in fact we are seeing such movement, whether hindrances to God's will are being set aside by the effective use of our faith. After all, it only needs a tiny faith, faith as a grain of mustard seed. Jesus Himself said so. And the Bible gives us two helpful illustrations of little people with little faith who were most effective in this way.
"... a little maid ..."
The first is the captive girl mentioned in 2 Kings 5:2. She provides a very good example of a little faith, expressed in quite an unspectacular way. She gave no startling demonstration of mountain moving and yet she had a considerable effect out of all proportion to her own insignificance. From time to time the Bible gives us examples of people who were plunged into dreadful circumstances and yet demonstrated a faith which not only survived but flourished. With most of us, a relatively small adversity thrusts us into a deep depression in which our minds are filled with doubts and our vital faith in God is shaken to its foundations. This girl, however, with every reason to question divine love and power, continued to believe in a living God. She had been overwhelmed by calamity, carried away captive by Syrian enemies, in spite of the fact that she belonged to the Israelites who were supposed to be God's chosen people. It might have seemed natural and even inevitable for her to have abandoned all faith. She did nothing of the kind, but betrayed by this almost chance remark that her simple faith in the living God and His servant Elisha was quite unshaken. It was almost a casual remark that if only her master were where God could be met in Israel, all his problems would be solved. Now she must have prayed for her own deliverance and got no answer. In matters of her personal well-being there was plenty in life to suggest that if indeed there were a living God, He was either not interested or not able to meet her need. But, instead of becoming embittered with her lot, she never questioned the fundamental fact that if Naaman were to visit Elisha, he could be healed.
She represents a challenge to us all. We are not in slavery as she was. However difficult our circumstances may be they must surely be preferable to hers. Moreover we have all been grounded in the basic knowledge that men can find their needs met if only they will turn to Christ. Can we forget ourselves, as she did? Can we make it apparent to all that we have unswerving faith in an all-sufficient God? Do we communicate what we know to others? Let us remember that this lass was a nobody. It was not a sense of personal adequacy which prompted her words. She did not speak formally, as though preaching. She simply expressed by her demeanour and by this 'throw-out line', that she had complete confidence in the power of the living God, and was content in quite a spontaneous way to be a living link between Him and others. There was no question of the quantity of her faith, but only of its quality. It was like a grain of mustard seed in that it was living, though very small. And the result was that Naaman was not only physically healed but spiritually converted.
"... There is a lad here ..."
We go to the New Testament and to the other sex to find another small person who is a challenge to us. "There is a lad here ..." (John 6:9). Now one might expect the boy to be mentioned by Luke, since he is the Evangelist who concentrates on the human element, but it is only John who informs us of the part played by him. John's Gospel stresses the essentially spiritual element, dealing so much with the great eternal verities of our faith; yet it is he who tells us of the simple faith of a very small member of that great throng. The boy acted not because he felt that he had the answer to the needs of the crowd and not because he had tried to enter into the calculations of the disciples as they attempted to weigh up the situation and measure the dimensions of the need. No, it was simply that he trusted Christ. His little picnic represented his own reasonable and total need, but he was prepared to let it go and commit it into the hands of Jesus.
This was faith in practice. He was a small person with small resources and possibly small faith, but this faith was sufficient to induce him to hand over everything to the Lord. In doing so he made possible the classic example of Christ's sufficiency to meet man's every need. It makes one of the best Bible stories for children, though John was no writer of children's stories, but the recorder of fundamental spiritual principles. In this connection, then, he made it his business to call our [88/89] attention to the practical faith -- no bigger than a grain of mustard seed -- which had such effective values for God.
Do we have that small amount of faith? Surely we must have if we are Christians at all, for we could have no spiritual life without an elementary confidence in God as living and all-sufficient. Without such a modicum of faith we could never have started. The point seems to be, then, that this faith must mature and grow, something which will only happen as we put our knowledge of God into action. Do we know Him? Of course we do. Then let us express our faith, as the boy did, by our complete committal. It is not a matter of calculation or ability to explain God's ways, but just one of whole-hearted trust in His wisdom and ability.
In the spiritual life little causes can produce massive effects. A casual comment by a captive girl, and a prominent man is healed and converted. A boy's readiness to hand over his little packet of food, and thousands are fed and a spiritual background provided for Christ's claim to be the bread of life. Looking back on the stories of these two youngsters, we may well envy the pleasure which came to them. This pleasure can be ours; the joy of not being or doing anything great in ourselves but of having a part in God's glorious activities.
The supreme pleasure, however, belonged not to them but to God. As He looked down in those days on an Israel who were a painfully poor lot, His heart must have been gladdened by the pure faith of this child, a faith which shone the brighter because of the darkness of her circumstances. It was the same in the case of the lad. What hungry boy would ever be glad to give away his food to others? He could not have had the slightest idea of the sensational results which would follow, and knew that the only thing which stood between him and greater hunger was the trustworthiness of Jesus. But that was enough for him. He had faith, even though it was only as a grain of mustard seed. Such faith must have brought deep satisfaction to the Lord's heart. How wonderful that we can do the same. We, too, may bring pleasure to the Lord. It only needs faith as a grain of mustard seed.
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