I received this from a brother in our church - it's very worth the short read. makrothumia
Little Faith or Great Faith?
Do we have a little or a great faith? If we have little faith, this is much better than no faith at all. No faith is obvious, but the difference between having little faith and great faith may not be so clear to us.
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water Peter was compelled to ask if he could walk out to Him. We can not know the exact distance that separated Peter and the boat from Jesus, but meditating on this this morning, I found it quite significant. We know Peter actually stepped out of the boat and began to walk on the water. Walk is an action verb which means that he was physically getting farther and farther from the boat. My meditation focused upon why Jesus called this walk “little faith”. Was it just because he didn’t make it all the way to Him or was it because as he moved farther and farther from the other thing (the boat) that was able to keep him safe he began to display little faith?
Think about this with me. If Peter just stepped out and immediately began to sink he could have easily turned and grabbed the boat. If he had walked five feet away from the boat he could still likely turn pretty easily and make it back safely to the boat. If he walked ten feet it would be more of a challenge, but he probably could still make it back to the boat. Like I have already stated we can not know the distance between Peter and Jesus, but I think it is safe to assume that when Peter was somewhere in the middle, due to the wind and waves, it would be very difficult to get back to the safety of the boat. It was at this point Peter began to lean upon his own understanding and look at things from an earthly point of view. Caught in the middle, he lost focus and faith in the very creator of the sea in which he was walking on had told him to “come”. He began to reason in his mind that it was going to be impossible to get back to that boat.
We have a differnt example of a Roman Centurion exercising great faith. Jesus was willing to come to his house and heal his servant, but the centurion knew by faith that it was not even necessary. He knew that Jesus could speak the word only and his servant would be healed.
It is of great necessity that we understand the difference between these two degrees of faith. One wants the safety of something else to fall back on in case this thing doesn’t work out and the other is willing to let everything go and believe God at His Word. We must be willing to forsake everything to be His disciple.
In this walk of faith do we really want the safety of the boat getting in our way? Do we need to see some sign or wonder to believe Him at His Word? Or can we by faith in the hope of what He has already promised, begin to lay hold of this truth?
Faith is the substance things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Are we still looking to "our boat" that we just stepped out of, or are we learning to trust Him who is able to save us to the uttermost (completely).
The God of the entire universe is calling us to “come”.