If my faith is too small, what must I do?

Jesus’s disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. Have we ever prayed asking Jesus to increase our faith? At times we may feel that our faith is too small. We struggle to even pray when we face challenges. 

The reading from Lamentations chapter 1 is about Jeremiah’s lament over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. It personifies the city as a bereaved, abandoned widow. There was so much of despair. Today’s Psalm 137 is about the people weeping by the rivers of Babylon. Jeremiah’s faith is diminished to the smallest. However, his trust in God stands out. 

The reading from Lamentations 3 shows a ray of hope shining into the darkness. Jeremiah remembers God and speaks out: “this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of God never ceases; God’s mercies never end; they are new every morning; great is God’s faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion; therefore, I will hope in God.”

Similarly, in the epistle today Paul advises Timothy with a simple practical solution to diminished faith. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” It is a faith kindled in Timothy by his mother and grandmother and by Paul. It is about faith passed through generations. Remembering such faith gives new hope.

Jeremiah and Paul demonstrating for us the powerful spiritual practice of remembering. Too often our pain makes us forget how God has sustained us amidst past troubles. We forget how God redeemed us from suffering. Jeremiah does not forget to “call to mind” how God has helped him before. Remembering God’s action gives him new hope. Paul reminds Timothy about the faith passed on to him from his mother and grandmother, and to rekindle the gift in him.

We all have the tendency to ask God for help and quickly move to what we think is best. Instead, we must wait expectantly for God with open minds and hearts.

The disciples of Jesus are no exception. Though they followed Jesus, they felt their faith diminished. So, they asked Jesus to increase their faith.

Why do they think they need more faith? To be fair, the challenge that Jesus laid for them is difficult and daunting. It is for anyone who has a drop of self-awareness about their sinfulness. With everything else Jesus has taught and modelled, in Luke 17, Jesus specifically spoke about not being an obstacle to others as well as the necessity to forgive repeatedly and regularly. It is to these two things undoubtedly the disciples cry, “Increase our faith!”

Jesus responded saying that it does not take much faith. What matters is, the use of that faith in doing what we should. That must be really the focus. Jesus tells them to just do what they are supposed to do as God’s slaves; they do not have a faith supply problem; they have an internal motivation problem. If they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could do greater things than they can imagine.

Jesus uses a real-world example from their time and culture to make his point. Who keeps rewarding their slave for doing their job? Who holds their slave to an easier standard than they hold themselves? Who thanks their slave for doing their job? Nobody. What Jesus teaches his followers is about how to live out their faith that makes for an extraordinary life. It is the bare minimum of what it means to be his slave.

Stop asking for more faith and practice the Jesus way. Stop expecting recognition and recognize all that God has given you. The gift of faith given to each of us is accompanied by God’s very self as the Holy Spirit abides with us.

Having God with us, we might think of it this way: instead of asking God to increase our faith internally, we can pray to God to increase our faith in action externally. This prayer gets us wondering about how God is calling us to be God’s servant today. And it allows us to build on the sure foundation of faith Jesus has laid for us in our hearts. It may be a faith coming from our parents or grandparents or any other ways.

Our vocation as Christians is to follow Jesus where he leads. Remember Paul’s words: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”

My faith is too small. What do I do? Just simply follow Jesus where he leads. It is not a matter whether you have a faith of the size of a mustard seed or the size of a mountain. What matters is what you do with that faith.