Where is Your Faith?

Sharing with a friend the other day and he encouraged me to look Jesus' leadership style. To be quite honest with you I had never thought about Jesus having a "style" of leadership. In fact, every time I read the Gospels I simply knew that he was the Teacher and his disciples were the students. Shows you how much I know...huh?

What's amazing about this process is that when you understand what a disciple is and what they do...they are followers, pupils, servants, & apprentices. They learn by hearing, seeing, and emulating what their master says, does, and teaches. When you look at it that way I guess you could say that Jesus did have a style. He was the type of leader who exemplified truth to his followers. He didn't simply tell them but rather showed them how to live.

It's with that view I want to share with you a familiar portion of Scripture. In Mark chapter 4 we read the account of Jesus with his disciples in a boat. During their trip the wind began to blow fiercely and waves began to crash against the vessel. The disciples panicked and turned to find Jesus asleep. In their fear, they woke him up and explained that they were all about to die. Actually, they were so afraid that they asked why he didn't care that they were about to die. Jesus, woke up and rebuked the wind and the sea bringing peace to the situation. Then in verse 40 he said, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?"

What an interesting question: How is it that you have no faith? Allow me for a moment to speak as Jesus...
How is it that you have no faith? Have I not already shown you how to operate under these conditions? Are you unable to recognize the opportunities to exercise your faith? Remember how I healed the leper? How about the time that the paralytic got up from his bed and walked? Have you already forgotten about the demon possessed man who was set free, Peter's mother-in-law whose sickness left, or the man whose withered hand was restored? I have already shown you what faith can accomplish - how is it that you have no faith?

Jesus as the Master Teacher did so much more than teach on the subject of faith. He demonstrated faith to them on a daily basis. What about you? Are you in a situation that requires you to believe God in the midst of blowing winds and crashing waves? Do you feel as though your very life is slipping out of your hands? I think it's time to exercise some faith. You may be saying that you don't have the faith to believe. How is it that you don't have faith? Has God never answered a prayer? Has God left you to your own devices? Or have you seen that God does in fact answer prayer and provides all the resources needed for your life?

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us," I love this verse because when my faith operates according to Eph. 3:20 I find that God is not only able but that he performs exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or think of Him. All I have to do is have faith.

It is by grace through FAITH that we are saved.
It is by FAITH that we are able to please God according to Hebrews 11:6.
It is by FAITH that we have confidence in the unseen.

The good news in this is that the size of your faith is never measured by the dimensions of your circumstances. Jesus told us that if we had the faith of a grain of mustard seed that we could move mountains. If you placed a mustard seed at the bottom of a mountain would be hard pressed to see it. But that mustard seed of faith can remove any and all obstacles. What are you believing God for? Or maybe I should say, What should you be believing God for?