my little faith.

Today I read through Matthew 15-16. Somewhere in the midst of all the verses Jesus heals a woman and tells her how great her faith is, and then in another part His disciples who have seen so many miracles are confused by something He is telling them and He responds by telling them how small their faith is. 

So often we look at this faith to mean we believe that God can do anything, and yep He can-- look around.  Obviously the disciples knew He could do anything.  So what did Jesus mean in chapter 16? They misunderstood what He was telling them because they were looking at what is temporary rather than seeking the eternal in His words.  If they had only referenced the power He had displayed earlier they would've recognized what He was telling them. 

In chapter 15 a woman who is from a group of people who worshiped false gods, cried out from the crowd to Jesus asking for her daughter to be cleansed from a demon.  Jesus tested her by  saying "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour." She saw passed the flesh and blood temporal aspect of being from a different group of people and right into the power of the living God. That's why her faith was great.

In other places over and over again in the gospels Jesus heals people and says something like 'your faith has made you well'

Faith is far more than simply believing that God can heal us, it is seeing straight through this temporal world and our temporal problems and into eternity, into the mighty miraculous power of God.  It is moving through every obstacle that seeks to keep us from moving into His presence.  Peter did that when he walked on water to go to Jesus, but the second his eyes were back on the temporary, which in his case were waves crashing down around him, he sank straight into them.  It's not easy to stay so focused on Christ when the temporary presses in against us so heavily, but it is possible and when we do it... when we press right in to God and seek and ask for His power to come right into/ through us something powerful will happen. This is the very place of the miraculous. 

I recognized today that I am in the crowd of those with little faith.  Most of us are; if it were not so we'd be seeing miracles at every turn. Lord please fix our faith!