Hennie Symington

The apostles said to the Lord, “Make our faith greater.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!’ and it would obey you.”  Luke 17:5-6

Jesus said to him, “Anyone who starts to plough and then keeps looking back is of no use to the Kingdom of God.”  Luke 9:61-62

Time and again, we read how surprised Jesus was at people’s uncertainty about faith. And yet from birth God has endowed us with the gift of faith. Even children know that. For them believing is natural. The problem is that our faith has been worn away by negativity, scepticism, sarcasm and cynicism. Perhaps because we don’t always understand what faith is.

Faith is action. Faith is to do or put into action what Jesus teaches us. Many of us think we do not know enough about faith and should therefore read more about it. “Give me more faith,” we pray while we already believe. All you need to do is to activate the faith your already have in you. Visit the gallery of the heroes of our faith in the Bible – many of them outright villains and not worthy of the title. And yet they were the ones who ventured into the realm of faith. In Hebrews 11 there’s a whole gallery of these heroes of the faith displayed as examples to us.

There comes a time in the life of all those wavering on the edge to take a leap of faith. Perhaps we should stop being passive onlookers sitting in the church Sunday after Sunday waiting for something to happen. So often we are like the Israelites of old wandering in the desert rather than entering the Promised Land. Maybe it’s time to venture out of the nest to give wings to your faith. And before you know you will be soaring like an eagle above God’s heavenly landscape.

Prayer: Lord, you are the wind beneath my wings which allows me to soar like an eagle above your Promised land. Amen.