Daily Archives: February 12, 2004

I was reading this morning from Luke 17 verses 5 to 10.

⁵One day the apostles said to the Lord, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”
⁶“Even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed,” the Lord answered, “you could say to this mulberry tree, `May God uproot you and throw you into the sea,’ and it would obey you!
<sup>7</sup>“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn’t just sit down and eat. <sup>8</sup>He must first prepare his master’s meal and serve him his supper before eating his own. <sup>9</sup>And the servant is not even thanked, because he is merely doing what he is supposed to do. <sup>10</sup>In the same way, when you obey me you should say, `We are not worthy of praise. We are servants who have simply done our duty.’ ” (NLT)

The disciples question just happens to be a question I am asking too.  I want more faith – tell me how to get it.

And then Jesus, as usual, tells a story.  Instead of saying follow these steps a…,b…c…, he says, I think, do what you are supposed to do.  Do your duty and obey me and don’t look for praise for doing it.

My first reation is, “Well, what does this have to do with the question?  How on earth will doing my duty increase my faith?”

I must confess, I do not understand this.  Shouldn’t he have said study the scriptures, pray, spend time fellowshipping with fellow believers?

Is this one of those Naaman moments when I am looking for something more obvious or glamourous to do – more along the lines of what is expected in our churches – something I can do to improve myself?  I don’t know.  Somehow just doing what I’m doing dosen’t seem like much.