Jesus could say a lot with few words. He made the famous declaration, "Have faith in God," after the disciplies heard him curse a fig tree for being unfruitful. Not long afterward, they observed the tree withered up from the roots. (Mark 11:23)
Jesus' intent was not to impress them with his jaw-dropping faith exploits, reserved only for the Son of God. "You can have faith like this, too," He seemed to be saying.
My earliest understanding of this command was to see it punitively. "Have faith or else!" I felt pressured to perform. Did I have enough faith? Could I muster up some sort of quasi miracle working-power on my own to accomplish anything for God? Not likely. My faith seemed puny and ineffective, and I was frustrated.
Fast forward beyond several years of sporadic faith failures. I looked for another layer of understanding for this verse. It began to look like an invitation instead of a command. Jesus is offering you and me some of God's own faith -- it is something He is gladly willing to share with us. "Help yourself to some of God's faith!" We can partake if we are interested. God is not stingy, and He is more than eager to help us receive from Him.
That sounds a lot more like a gracious heavenly Father who wants to ease our burdens and make our yoke light. He is willing to share His miracle-working faith with me to accomplish the impossible.
The invitation gets better. We are invited to take our eyes off of ourselves entirely and what we can accomplish and lean into Him. We are being invited to trust in and rely on Someone supernatural, who can do incredibly more than anything we can ask or imagine. We are asked to put our faith in a Being beyond ourselves and what we can fathom with our senses.
If we take it seriously, such an invitation will relieve any pressure we feel to perrform, not increase it. I can relax. Somebody very big is in charge of my problems.
Jesus invites us into an intimate relationship with a mind-boggling Creator who is willing to put His power to work on our behalf to unravel our messes and bring creative solutions that no one else could think of or provide.
Have faith in God -- the God of no limits. Let's take Him up on His invitation.
