There are a lot of teachings in the word of God that would lead us to say “increase our faith.” The disciples had heard all kinds of amazing teachings that required a testing of their faith. I am not sure how often they asked this, but there was a hard teaching that led them to increase their faith.
At the beginning of Luke 17 Jesus taught on forgiveness. He said basically, If you brother offends you go to him and rebuke him. If he forgives you, forgive him. If he does it again, forgive him again – even if it happens seven times in the same day.”
Forgiveness is not always easy. We have been offended, our sensitivities scratched, an injustice perceived. It may not be too hard to forgive the first time, but what about if they do the same thing over and over and over again? How easy is it to forgive the seventh time someone offends us? And yet, Jesus still says, “forgive him.”
No wonder the disciples said, “Increase our faith.” Forgiveness – how do we do with that particular teaching? Might we all say, “Increase our faith”?
No comments:
Post a Comment