Prepare for Easter

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Luke 17:5-6 NRSV

I used to love to make bread and butter pickles, partly because I like them and partly because it was such a satisfying task completed, to see them on the shelves. One absolutely necessary ingredient is mustard seeds, and when the pickles are all finished, the seeds look so pretty floating in the vinegar! They are not the tiniest of seeds, but they are pretty small.

Just as mustard seeds are required for my pickles, so is faith required for us to be effective in God’s business. Not much, just a little. Our problem is that we imagine ourselves believing that if we had the faith of Billy Graham or Francis Schaeffer or Oswald Chambers, we could do great things. No, says Jesus. Just a little to flavor our work!

So how do we get it? Ask. Scripture says, “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) So we start by asking. But then God has something he wants us to do so that we can hear when he gives the faith and act on it. He says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

We don’t earn it. We can’t manufacture it. We can’t get it through feelings. Faith comes when we really hear and accept God’s Word. Then we can really pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” knowing that it’s all part of the God-business we’re in!

Father, Increase our faith. Open your Word to us with understanding. Flavor our lives with faith so we can be about your business successfully. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church
of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator