Luke 17:3-10
Increase our Faith!
TEXT:
Luke 17:3-10
(The Message Translation)
3-4 “Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”
6 But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.
7-10 “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”
REFLECTIONS:
The word that gets translated to "faith" in verses 5 and 6 is better translated as "faithfulness." In light of verses 3 and 4, I wonder what it means for the disciples to be asking for help being more consistently forgiving, rather than having an easier time believing.
Jesus seems to be saying, even a little bit of forgiveness is enough to change the world around you!
And even in our serving, its so easy to fall into rivalry, to seek to out-serve others for the sake of status and admiration. But if we consider our habits of forgiveness and service to be the most natural way of being human -a basic responsibility, perhaps- the rivalries might stop and we might discover ourselves to be precisely who we were always intended to be.
PRACTICE:
Outward Mindset Application Learn the objectives of 3 people who you affect at work.
Pathways Toward Centeredness Contemplation (loving the world through reflection and adoration): Each day this week, spend 5-10 minutes in silent reflection on your day. Consider these three questions: Where did you see beauty today? Where did you see pain today? How would you describe your spirit right now?
Questions for Reflection What is something you currently wish you had more of in life? Is there anyone with whom you find yourself in rivalry? What do you think is your responsibility toward that person?