One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the terrace. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame and smoke. The boy was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy said, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.” The boy jumped because he trusted his father.

Our Christian faith enables us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen, we are always under the watchful eyes of our Heavenly Father. And the Lord wants us to grow in this Christian faith so that we become more familiar with His voice and more confident of His power.

So we are going to look at two passages where we will see little faith and great faith: Mt 14:22-32 and Mt 15:21-28

Little faith Matthew 14:22-32

In this passage, we see that

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat – This storm came even when they were in the will of God. If we think that obedience to God always brings smooth sailing it is not true. Sometimes obedience places us right in a storm. [i.e. every storm is not of the devil]

Two kinds of Storms we see in the Bible 1. Storms of Correction – When God disciplines us (eg. Jonah). 2. Storms of Perfection – When God helps us grow in faith (eg. In Matt 8:23-27 and here). So we need to remember that the faith-testing, life-threatening storms are no accident- they are purposeful.

V.25 says Jesus comes to them walking on water. Jesus always comes and offers His presence to help us, encourages us and strengthens us. Jesus would have come walking on water to strengthen their faith in His power and Sovereignty over all things but fear blinded them to recognise the Lord. Fear often blinds our eyes to the presence of the Lord.

But look at V.27 Jesus says-“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  Jesus calms the storm of fear in the disciples first before he calms the storm in the sea. The promises in the Bible quieten our fears and give assurance to our souls even when we are in the midst of a storm – Isa 41:10 – “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” Deut 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The common factor in all these verses – I am with you, yes, it is the Lord’s presence that should be our confidence. He is with us. So the truth we should remember is – IT IS THE LORD’S PRESENCE AND HIS PROMISES THAT STRENGTHENS US IN THE STORMS.

And then we see Peter asking the Lord – “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Now in a lot of sermons, we hear that – this was great faith by Peter that he wanted to walk on water, that he ventured out while the others chose to remain in the boat.

But the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon says – Why did Peter want to walk on the water? Why did he seek such a wonder? It was because his faith was little. Even in his prayer to the Lord there is an element of doubt- he said-  “Lord if it’s you….” The use of if speaks of doubt already. The Devil’s temptation to Jesus started with the same word “if you are the son of God…” remember?

Strong faith is content without signs, without marvels. It believes God’s word alone and asks for no confirming miracle. I wonder how many times we make such prayers – “Lord if you give me this job I will start coming to church, if you heal me of this sickness, I will become a missionary, if You provide me this house, I will tithe etc.

So the first characteristic of little faith is – it is not content in God’s Word alone, it looks for signs or experiences.

And we see Jesus said – “Come.”  Peter did walk on water, but when he saw the wind he was afraid and started sinking. Now when Peter got out of the boat the same wind and storm were there but at that time his eyes were on Jesus so he walked on water as soon as he saw the wind and waves he became fearful.

So the second characteristic of little faith is it gets easily distracted by the circumstances and therefore it gets frightened.

Friends like Peter, you and I are always looking at the waves and winds around us, we forget to look at Jesus. Times of sickness, financial struggles, relational problems or for that matter even children’s studies may seem like storms and the Bible says we can cast our cares on Jesus because He cares for us. When Peter was sinking and cried out, v.31 says Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him. Jesus reaches out to help and save anyone who cries to Him. Did you notice in this passage one word is repeated 3 times 22,27 and 31? – Immediately – Jesus is always ready to direct, help and save. And after saving Peter from drowning Jesus rebuked him gently saying- “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” In Mt 6, Mt 8 and in this passage we see Jesus rebukes little faith because they are our worries and fears and doubts.

So that’s the 3^rd characteristic of little faith – it forgets the Lord’s promises and gives up too quickly.

Now let’s go to the next passage and see great faith in Matthew 15:21- 28. What are some of the similarities we see in these 2 passages – Both Peter and this woman were facing a challenge, in both cases Jesus went to the needy, and both prayed the prayer of desperation – ‘Lord save me’ Peter prayed for himself and ‘Lord help me’, the woman prayed for the sake of her daughter.

Now what is the difference we see? In the first passage, Peter had all the advantage of knowing the scripture and approaching Jesus as the Lord, this woman is a Canaanite – a descendant of Israel’s ancient enemies, a Gentile – an idol worshipper. She would have never read the scriptures but still, she turns from the idols, from false gods and approaches Jesus asking for mercy – with reverence and humility.   

Have we approached Jesus casually or have we truly given up idols – of self, status, money position etc.? The disciples had spent more time with Jesus, and had first-hand experience of miracles so they should have had more understanding about Jesus’ divinity – His authority over the storm and wind but we see they were responding in fear, in doubt and this woman may have just heard about Jesus from others but she was 100% convinced that Jesus has authority over the demons and He would be willing to heal her daughter. In the 7 verses that we read the woman calls Jesus ‘Lord’ three times.

Great faith recognizes the power and authority of Jesus

We have known about Jesus since our childhood but has this knowledge increased our faith? Or has it just increased our head knowledge? While the little faith gets easily distracted by the circumstances around us, great faith is persistent. This woman perseveres and keeps the focus on the Lord. The woman was discouraged by the disciples and Jesus Himself, but she kept her eyes on Jesus, she never gave up.

Great faith persists and doesn’t give up easily
Remember a woman was pleading for her daughter and the Roman centurion was pleading for his servant and both were commended by Jesus as having great faith. We can look at our own intercessory prayers and see if we are persevering in our prayers for others or if our prayers are more self-centric. Also notice that while little faith worships the Lord after the storm – look at 14:33, great faith worships God in the storm – 15:25 The woman came and knelt before Jesus. The answer for her prayer was still far but her confidence in the Lord’s mercy was great.

This woman was a mother with great faith and Jesus responded to her with great mercy. As mothers we may be concerned about our children, most of the children today are trapped in one or the other sinful habits, they move away from church and Bible study and prayer, they get addicted to things which may cause them personal harm and we feel so helpless. This mother’s faith teaches us that we can do nothing greater for our child than to come to Jesus for him or her. Our son or daughter may not be willing to come to Jesus, but we can come to Him and plead for our child!

Let us believe that Jesus is able and willing to transform our children’s lives. Even when the answer doesn’t seem to come right away let’s persevere in prayers. God is not impressed by ‘moments’ of great trust or extreme risk in our lives. He is not even impressed by how much we trusted him in the past. Instead, he is interested in whether we will trust him—and His character now, in the next moment. Persistence in trust and prayer pleases God.
May the Lord continue to grow us from little to great faith

Mrs. Lovely Samson