There’s an interesting statement made by Jesus’ disciples in Luke 17…

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

Luke 17:5

The twelve are responding to Jesus’ very radical approach to the concept of forgiveness (ch17:1-4).

 

The Lord calls us to forgive someone even if they have wronged us more times than we can count. Even if they’ve done the same crime to us over and over, and over and over come to us sincerely asking for forgiveness, we owe it to them to grant it.

After all, haven’t YOU struggled with one particular kind of sin? Haven’t we all? By “struggle” I mean you do the sin, even though you know it’s wrong, you ask for forgiveness and then, maybe a day later (maybe an hour!) you do it again…and again… Yet the Lord keeps forgiving us. So too must we forgive!

The disciples understand how hard that is. It’s easy to be the one asking for forgiveness, but it’s not so easy granting it over and over. Rightly do they say “increase our faith” because the kind of forgiveness Jesus is talking about requires us to be stronger Christians.

What would you ask Jesus to increase your faith for, so that you could do it more faithfully? The disciples needed it to forgive people. What do you need? Don’t hesitate to ask Jesus to increase your faith!