Daily Lesson for October 12, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 4 through 11:

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

Faith is a gift given by the Holy Spirit.

Faith comes to us solely by and through God. This means will power cannot gain us greater faith. We cannot will ourselves to believe more or trust more.  

This is how we know the disciples were beginning to understand the secret of Jesus’ power when they asked him, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5). They had come to the limits of their own natural abilities. They knew that if they were to stay the course and keep following Jesus they were going to need something supernatural to sustain them. 

Jesus’ answer: to trust the faith that has been given. “If you have faith even the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this tree, “Be uprooted and thrown into the sea.”

In a letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to others in the German confessing church which was resisting Hitler, Bonhoeffer wondered if he would have the faith to endure the trials ahead. He sponsored if he had the faith within him. His answer, surprisingly, was no. No, he did not yet have what he might one day need. And this too was a gift from God.  For what he would need in the days ahead he would have to depend upon God to provide, lest he trust in his own sufficiency.

To be of little faith is not a shame. The faith we have is sufficient unto the day. Should we need more in the days ahead we should pray so. For faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, that we might know our sufficiency comes only from the LORD.