Faith Under Fire
Somehow, people saying they believe anything is possible has not only become expected but it has also become a virtue. As a pastor, I am in different levels of relationship with many people, and it is my experience that most people don’t really believe anything is possible. They just say so as a sign of faith or open-mindedness.
I’m not much of a cook, so when I go to the store and buy a bag of spinach it seems like plenty when I hold the bag in my hand. It feels leafy and fluffy and full. I think it will be enough. But when I go home and cook it, it shrinks, so much so that it hardly seems enough. The heat shrinks it. It shrinks under fire.
Faith can be like that. Peter declared that he would never abandon Jesus even if he had to die with Him. But warming his hands by the fire, he denied knowing Jesus three times. The pressure of the situation caused his faith to shrink. Under fire his faith shrunk.
Thankfully, Jesus’ faith held up under fire. We all have our breaking point. The good news is that Jesus says it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. It’s not the size of our faith but the duration of our faith that matters.
As believers we keep on believing in the improbable, and yes, even in the impossible. Our faith may shrink under the fire of our circumstance, but Jesus teaches us that it will be enough.
Amen
Pastor Gary
