5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. 7“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Luke 17:5-10
The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, and as we will learn this week, that is up to us. We are created in God’s image, with free will to choose for ourselves. This is the beauty of our relationship with Him.
Rather than being forced to worship the Lord, we are called to do so, chosen to be part of His family…if we so choose. God didn’t want us to worship Him without thinking, without the ability to say yes or no. He created us to be in relationship with Him, but not as robots or beasts who are forced to obey.
Our loving God wants us to choose Him and His plan for us because we want to be connected and to be part of His work. While as our Creator God could make us do His will, He chose to give us a choice, that our faith in Him might be truly ours.
Gracious God, while we don’t always make good choices, we are grateful for the ability to learn from them and to see Your blessings as a free gift. Help us to share our faith and through sharing, increase our connection to You. Amen.