I heard a story this past week about a pacifist who entered the army during World War II. He was assigned to the medical team because he refused to carry a gun. During one the battles, the Americans were in an awkward spot. This man would go and bring the wounded back to the medical team. Every time he left the team, he would pray, “God, would You let me get just one more?” In this way, he saved the lives of approximately 75 men.
This man’s faith seemed very small. He didn’t have the faith to save lives. He had the faith to save a single life. And when that life was saved, he had faith for one more life. And then one more life. And then one more.
Sometimes in our walk with God, we believe we must have big faith. “I shouldn’t start this thing God is calling me to do because I don’t have enough faith for the next five years,” for example. But big faith like that isn’t necessarily the most effective way of following God or growing trust in God. When we try to manufacture big faith, we have a tendency to wander into self-effort to maintain that “faith.” (As a side note, it’s quite Biblical to count the cost before beginning a project or ministry with God (Luke 14:28) – counting the cost and maintaining faith aren’t quite the same thing.)
Small faith is much easier because it doesn’t need to be manufactured and maintained by human effort over time. For example, I’ve known people with medical conditions who would pray something like, “God, would you get me through this specific situation?” And then the next time the situation comes along, “God, would you get me through this situation?” And so on. They grew faith and healing in their life through small prayers of faith rather than trying to tackle the entire healing at once. It was also a great stopgap until God healed them completely.
It’s not a crime to have small faith. Jesus said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed [an absolutely tiny amount of faith], you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to over there,’ and it would move over. You will be able to do anything.” (Matthew 17:20) Some days we have quite a lot of faith, and other days, we just don’t. And there’s nothing wrong with that. God knows our faith levels on any given day and in any given situation. And He can work with it and make up for our lack through His own power (2 Corinthians 12:9, Philippians 4:19).
As we practice small faith, our faith in God grows. It’s actually a fast track to trusting in God because instead of holding out for a huge miracle, we see Him working in the small ways for which we pray. Of course, not every prayer is answered the way we might have imagined it, but seeing Him at work builds faith.
If you haven’t seen the answers to your prayers yet, I highly recommend practicing small faith. See God move in the small things. The medic’s prayer, “God, help me save one more,” is just as powerful as praying with what little faith in God we might have. And when that is answered, we get to ask for the next thing. And then for the next. In this way, we enter into working with God in faith rather than trying to manufacture our own.
