03/07/2019
How is your faith today? Does it remain stored away in a seed sack; a tiny seed in your heart awaiting its season in a barn, or does it flourish where you have planted and tended it? Are you satisfied with the little, or are you led by the Spirit to grow and produce much fruit? Jesus tells us to have faith in God, but that doesn’t mean that our faith is complete when first received, or is dormant and unable to grow like a seed which hasn’t been sown.
“And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22 ESV
The Jack Pine begins its life in a hellish firestorm. The intense heat of a raging forest fire causes the hard cones that hold its seeds to burst open; releasing the seeds within them, and the wind which follows the fire scatters them across the ground where they germinate and take root in the coming rains. Our faith is much like the seed of the Jack Pine... without the intense fires we face in life there can be no new life. Without the danger of the blaze our seed can’t find the ground and germinate... no new trees to tower over the countryside. Are we like Jack Pines in our Faith? Do we hold tight to our tiny seeds; unable to let them go? Is our seed of faith held safe within us where it never reaches the ground nor receives the rain that causes it to send down roots, and shoot up tall green branches? Or do we crackle with praise in the midst of the storm, and let our seeds loose to grow?
“for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:3-4 ESV
You are probably wondering about the tree that bore the cones, and what happened to it during the fire. You are most likely concerned that this tree was consumed by the fire or at very least scorched and killed. Well, that is true, the tree dies, but in suffering this way the tiny seeds of a single tree rise up from the ground as a forest. Our tiny seed of faith grows tall, and new, by the death of the old life that it has left behind.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
I am reading Spurgeon’s devotional “Morning and Evening” this year, and in it he says this about having a little faith...
“Little Faith will save us, but little faith cannot do great things for God.” - Charles Spurgeon
I believe it would have been better stated that “INCREASING” our faith by a little will save us. I say this based on the parable of the talents. Jesus told the parable of the talents in which a servant was given a single talent to manage while his master was away, but instead of investing it he buried it for fear of the master, and of losing what he had been given altogether. At the end of the story we see that his talent had not lost its value, but it hadn’t grown either. So as a result, the master took it away, and cast him out into the darkness...
“So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”
Matthew 25:28-30 ESV
We are all given a seed of faith, but how will we use it? Will we grow it a little; will we grow it a great deal, or will we bury it inside ourselves for safety’s sake, and on judgement day lose everything as a result?
How are we managing the seeds of our faith? Are we so afraid of the firestorm that we hide ourselves and our seeds to avoid the suffering and hardship, or are we releasing our faith to the fertile soil that awaits it?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the seed of faith that you have placed within me, and I pray that I will not fear the coming storm that will free it to fall to the ground where it will grow. Help me Holy Father to trust in you, and see the good and bountiful nature of your provision that lies just beyond my suffering. Teach me Lord Jesus of the importance found in increasing my faith in the Father, and help me to open briskly to the heat of life’s blazes. Let all those around me see the faithfulness within me growing, and come to find their own faith in you by the fruit which I produce. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who nourishes my seed, and causes blooms and fruit to spring forth from my branches. Praised be your name for my bounty, and it’s goodness that will draw the hungry to your table. Glory to you my God whose breath blows the flame, and then scatters the seeds as they fall and rise up. Great are you Holy Father, and greatly to be praised... now and forevermore.
Rich Forbes