How Much Faith is Enough?

How Much Faith do We Need?

How much faith is enough? That’s a good question. Did you ever cry out to God in desperation and end up stunned when He answered your prayer?

I have.

Let me tell you about the divine answer which became an earthquake in my life, and re-arranged my entire spiritual landscape.

A Worrying Scripture

Remember the story of two blind men who kept pestering Jesus? It’s in Matthew 9.

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁸ When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they replied.

²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you;” ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” (Matthew 9:27-30 NIV)

I loved this story the first time I read it. But I immediately became stressed by Jesus’ words in verse 29; His meaning seemed to be so clear.

My Story

The phrase, “According to your faith, let it be done to you” terrified me as a young believer. I thought I needed a higher level of faith or the Lord would never answer my prayers. Back then, I was an ex-atheist and a baby Christian. My faith level was very low. So Jesus’ words in Matthew 9 caused me to panic.

But because I’m a problem-solver, I came up with a solution.

My Prayer Hack

I started asking more experienced Christian students to pray for me. These believers knew God better and had more faith; I could clearly see it.  So I knew the Almighty would listen to their prayers, even if He wouldn’t listen to mine.

My method worked great for months. But God didn’t want a relationship with  his daughter by proxy. Instead, my Heavenly Father wanted me to know Him in a personal way.

So, one day, disaster struck.

I had an urgent prayer request, but couldn’t share it. Not with anyone. It was a family secret, shameful and private.

How much faith did I have that day? Only enough to ask Him to help. But my heart filled with despair. He wouldn’t answer, because my mind was full of doubt.

Another Scripture I’d read in James induced more panic. My hope dropped to zero.

⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:6-7 NIV)

I thought my prayer was headed for the trash heap, but God had other ideas.

God’s Surprising Response

Cut off from my believing friends’ support, my mind was filled with the thought, “No way is the Lord going to answer this.”

But I discovered God moves in unexpected, wonderful ways.

I traveled home that weekend. My faith bucket was empty. In fact, it probably had a hole in the bottom. My feeble prayers were a waste of time.

Imagine my shock when God granted my request. My faith was tiny compared to a mustard seed, but I used all of it.

Thinking back, the Holy Spirit answered this prayer before I even prayed. Because the impossible change I asked for occurred weeks earlier.

A Heavenly Result

The Holy Spirit’s answer shook up my inner life like a divine earthquake that day. Here’s what I began to understand.

• My pain matters to my Redeemer, Savior and Lord, because I am precious in His eyes, and so are you.
• Crying out to our Heavenly Father is always a good idea.
• We don’t have to try to manufacture a greater level of faith.
• We just need to use the small amount we have.

There is one other thing I learned years later. When we don’t have the level of faith we need, we can ask the Lord to supply more. Because every drop of faith we possess comes from Him.

Read my earlier post, A Heart Hard as Ice.

My Spiritual Point

Sometimes my faith or yours can move mountains. Other times, it won’t even move dust. Pray anyway. Because our Heavenly Father loves us and delights to answer.

These images came from Pixabay.com

Editor’s Note: I don’t understand James 1:6-7 but I know it’s God’s divine truth. It’s one of the Scriptural passages I will continue to wrestle with.

Lord, please give me insight into this verse.