Knowing what faith is - a step on the journey

NORSK
“Why couldn’t we …?” the disciples asked Jesus, and the question triggered several reflections. 

I shared the first one yesterday, and today I continue with the immediate response Jesus gave:

“Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matt 17:20

A week ago, a young mother brought to me her son and asked us to pray for him. He has microcephaly (Zika virus disease) and the disease was visible on the gorgeous little boy. I know that I can do nothing, but I also know that God can. The mother showed her faith by bringing the boy to be interceded for, Magna and I used our faith in praying. I believe Jesus was in the room and that he was very close to us. 

I wish that I could tell "and then the miracle happened!". But there was nothing to indicate that something happened there and then apart from the fact that we shared the pain. I continue to pray and I have shed many tears for the boy and his mother. I admit the feeling of emptiness caused by the feeling of shortcoming, because I have many times seen God intervene with healing. Yet I have also many times seen how he has joined in the suffering. There are no simple explanations or answers to the problem of suffering; However, with regard to the subject of faith I think the explanation is simple:

Faith is not an achievement, it is a response of love. Faith is taking God into the world so that people who suffer can meet his boundless love. “Why couldn’t we …?” the disciples asked. "For you have so little faith," Jesus replied. Maybe Jesus called it little faith because it was not a response of love to a situation of suffering, but solely a technical response: 'we’ll fix this, let's do a miracle!'?

I do not know, but again I am reminded about Paul’s statement: if I do not have love, I am nothing. The Jesus-quote from yesterday, “apart from me you can do nothing” supports the perspective if I switch ‘me’ with ‘love’. Since the Bible confirms that ‘God is love’, I would say that the switch is legitimate.

‘Manna’ for today:

“apart from love you can do nothing”

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