Jumping In With Child Like Faith

 

So the Lord said, “If you have faith 

            as a mustard seed,

 you can say to this mulberry tree,  

      ‘Be pulled up by the roots

      and be planted in the sea,’

        and it would obey you."

            Luke 17:6

Every Autumn, my grandchildren love raking leaves into a pile to fly into from the top of the little sliding board. After an hour of raking leaves into a large high pile, they are confident it is safe to make the jump into the leaves. I said "confident." They have faith that they will not break an arm or smash their face into the ground. Oh! the joy to land onto the fluffy leaves. Oh! to have the faith of a child.

As I'm reading the gospels, I see the word "faith" in many verses. When Jesus healed the blind or lame, he told them that they were healed because of their faith. The disciples probably heard those words many times. In Luke 17:5, they ask Jesus to increase their faith. He didn't answer them directly. However, in the following verses and chapters, he spoke of faith through parables. I'm not going to write about those parables, but my own wondering.

As I read the disciples' request, I wondered can God increase our faith. Isn't faith from within each of us? I relate the phrase 'believe in' to having faith. Totally believing in something is to have faith. John 3:16-18 reads, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Then, we read in the Ephesians 2:8,9, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."

     If we all could only have 

  that child like faith to jump

      into the arms of God.

"Without faith it is impossible

         to please him; 

  for he that comes to God

   must believe that he is, 

and that he is a rewarder of them       that diligently seek Him." 

          Hebrews 11:6