Luke 8:25 Where is your faith?

I don’t think churches talk enough about faith.  They are afraid people will end up disappointed if things don’t happen the way they expected.  I don’t see Jesus having that same problem.

In Luke 8, Jesus was in a boat with the disciples during a storm, and they were in danger of sinking.  Jesus was sleeping, and when they woke Him up, they said that they were perishing.  Or, roughly translated, we’re going to die.

And Jesus asks them: where is your faith? 

The disciples saw a grave situation, but Jesus expected them to not look at it with fear but with faith.

Two more times before the end of this chapter, Jesus talks to people about faith, and three times in this same section people are said to be “saved,” though from different things.  So Jesus’ question about where is their faith extends far beyond the boat.  It wasn’t just a question like that they shouldn’t have been afraid, since He was with them.  It’s more like, why did you even have to wake me up?  Whether that meant that they could have and should have commanded the storm to be still themselves or whether it just meant that they should have been able to trust God to take care of them in the storm, the question about where is your faith extends to every aspect of our lives.

Here Jesus rebuked a dangerous storm, and it became calm immediately.

When they arrived on the other side of the lake, they were met by a man who was demon-possessed and extraordinarily violent.   Jesus cast the demons out of the man, enough demons to drive a herd of swine into the sea.  And the man was immediately of a right mind.  The man was then described as having been “saved.”

Jesus is soon mobbed by a large crowd, and one woman fought her way through that crowd so she could touch Jesus.  Other gospel accounts say that she had said to herself that if she but touched His garments, she would be “saved.”  Mark 5:28

She was able to finally touch His garment, and she was instantly healed of a long-standing condition that doctors were unable to resolve.  Jesus felt power going out from Him, but He didn’t know who had touched Him.  Luke 8:44-46

We act so often like God is sitting on His throne, sorting through our prayer requests whether to answer them or not, but here was a lady who just believed and her request was answered without even a conscious decision on the part of Jesus.

And Jesus then tells her: Your faith has saved you.  Luke 8:48  You couldn’t even call it an answer to prayer, really.

Then immediately after, Jesus enters the house of a man whose daughter had just died. 

And what are His words to the father?  “Don’t be afraid.  [Literally, stop being afraid.]  Only believe, and she shall be saved.”  And Jesus then raised her from the dead.

In this short section of Scripture, people are saved from danger, demons, disease, and death.  Three times faith is mentioned as being important in each case. 

Stop worrying about whether you have enough faith or not, or even whether things turn out exactly as you had hoped.  Just focus on God, His power, His love, His grace, and His willingness to come to the aid of His people.  And stop being afraid.  Just believe.