“O ye of little faith!” The last thing we want to hear from our Lord is this phrase. The disciples heard it in Matthew 8, when in the storm they feared. With the water pouring into the boat threatening to overwhelm them, panic- stricken disciples woke the Lord from His sleep, quickly abandoning faith in Him. The crowd heard it in Matthew 6 when He questioned their anxiety over things of this life, over what they would eat and drink and what they would wear. He compared them to the beautiful lilies of the field that neither toiled nor spun, but made all of Solomon’s glory pale in comparison. He then pointed out that if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more then, would He clothe them? Peter heard the phrase when, in faith, he walked upon the water to the Lord, but seeing the terrible wind he began to sink and cried out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14) I have heard the phrase, whispered to my heart, when I doubted His provision at the very point I should have exercised my faith.
Whether it is a fierce storm that threatens to drown us, the worries that this life heap upon us, or a step out in faith that sends us running back in retreat, there are many times in our Christian lives when we can come face to face with our little faith. I have wondered at times, if faith the size of a mustard seed can “move a mountain”, how small must my faith actually be?
But we cannot stop there, if we do we are only seeing half of the picture: the frail, broken, human side of the picture. The other side is painted so beautifully, so spectacularly, that to miss it is to miss the beauty of His grace, to miss Him in all of who He is. When the Lord passed by Moses on Mt. Sinai He spoke of His own attributes saying, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” That is it right there… His faithfulness. His. My heart leaps with joy as I read the words of David in Psalm 26, “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” David walked in HIS faithfulness. We walk in HIS faithfulness!!
So when our faith shows itself lacking, when what we thought we possessed abandons us to the storms of this life, we must remember what Paul proclaimed in Romans 3, “What if some were unfaithful? Does their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” and in repentance we can return to our God with confidence, singing Psalm 40 at the top of our lungs as it proclaims, “As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me: your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!” We can bow down and receive mercy and give thanks to Him for His steadfast love and HIS FAITHFULNESS to us. (Psalm 138)
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