Measuring Faith

While we’ve each been given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), sometimes we’re found measuring things by our doubt and unbelief rather than by the faith we've received. What do I mean? Let’s follow Peter out on the Sea of Galilee as we attempt to evaluate and compute what happened there.

The disciples had been rowing across the Sea of Galilee throughout the night and making little forward motion. Then suddenly they saw Jesus walking towards them on the water, totally unencumbered by the waves and the wind. They were all afraid, yet despite his fear, Peter called out and said:

“‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters.’ He said, ‘Come.’ Peter stepped down from the boat, and walked on the water and went toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he yelled, saying, ‘Lord, save me.’ Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'” (Matthew 14-28-31 NHB).

A Small Measure of Faith

If you had been rowing for hours and hours, getting nowhere, and then saw Jesus walking effortlessly on the water, wouldn't you want to leave your labor behind and hope to join him? Before you answer, we know that Biblically speaking, only one twelfth of believers would follow that inclination and ask Jesus to call them out on the water. So that makes the following fact all the more impactful. If Peter had only "little faith," enabling him to get out of the boat and walk upon the Sea of Galilee, the faith of the other disciples was likely not sufficient to even be measured.

Perhaps it's time, therefore, that we reconsider and remeasure Jesus' "rebuke" of Peter and begin to see it as, at least in part, an affirmation of Peter's belief. Remember, the one who called Peter one of "little faith," is the same one who declared that faith as small as a mustard seed is sufficient to cast a mountain into the sea. We should join Jesus and commend Peter for his small measure of faith for it enabled him to exit a boat during a storm, and walk upon a path of rough waters. And, he was successful up until the point that he began to doubt.

A Measure of Doubt

What a teaching moment this was — holding Jesus' hand while standing on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus used the opportunity, not to degrade Peter but to affirm and instruct him. In essence, Jesus said, "You had a sufficient amount of faith to join me on the water. Things were going so well, why did you doubt?” Doubt! What exactly is doubt and why is it so destructive?

One way to understand doubt and its relationship to unbelief is to see it in light of hope's relationship to faith. Faith, after all, is the, "confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb 11:1 NIV). Doubt is the confidence in the things we see that contradict hope and faith. So, as hope is the fuel for faith, doubt then is the fuel for unbelief. Hope has the ability to believe the impossible, while doubt has the ability to put our focus on the circumstances around us. Peter's focus was broken and his attention was given to the wind and the waves about him, causing him to doubt not only Jesus, but the measure of his faith, successfully walking upon the water. Hope is realized in our focus upon Jesus as the Word of God. Doubt is realized and measured by our focus upon those things contrary to Jesus and the Word.

“We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete” (Hebrews 12:2 CEV)

As it is said, “We become what we behold.” Paul says that we’re transformed into Jesus’ likeness as we gaze into his glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and what is possible through our faith in him and put his eyes upon those things devoid of Jesus' glory. When he began to sink, believing that he needed to be saved, that's when the measure of his doubt outweighed the measure of his faith.

Measuring Contrary Winds

The strong winds enticed Peter to lose his focus, but it is easy to see why he had begun to remeasure the situation, despite his success thus far. The evening before, the disciples had been serving as waiters, helping Jesus feed over 5,000 hungry people. Afterwards, Jesus sent them off in a boat, rowing across the lake. By the time Jesus caught up to them, walking on the water, it was sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. in the morning. They had been rowing against the wind for many hours. 

In the moment that Peter shifted his focus off of Jesus and upon the strong winds, it was because he knew what it was like to strive against those winds and fail. He and his fellow disciples had been doing that for a measurable period of time in the dark of night. So, when he began to measure his current situation by the doubt that those previous experiences had created, that's when he began to sink. 

We will do the same whenever we look backwards at our failures instead of looking straight ahead towards Jesus.

Well-measured

A small amount of faith is nothing which we should be ashamed. We can, according to Jesus, accomplish great things as long as we do not measure our situation by doubt and unbelief. It is Jesus who gives us our measure of faith and the means by which it is applied. How we measure and apply doubt and unbelief to a situation, however, is totally upon us. Peter had seen Jesus walk on the water and applying a sufficient amount of faith (little), he walked out on the water. But once Peter's doubt based upon his own experience became his focus, the measure of his faith became inconsequential in relationship to the measure of attention he gave to doubt.

So if we are to learn from Peter's experience, we must first believe it a good thing to get out of the boat, answering Jesus' call for us to move forward. Then, we must strive to measure everything we do in light of the success Jesus had before us. He said that we would do the works that he did (John 4:12), which means that depending upon the need, we can look to his example as to what is possible. That's how Peter walked on the water. We must see Jesus as the author and completer of our faith (Heb 12:2).

Hope is the lighthouse that calls us forward and is the substance under our feet as we move forward in faith. It always tells us that there will be a place to step as long as our eyes are focused in the right place. That's how we measure where our next step is going, and that's how we combat the doubt that comes to counteract walking out the measure of faith we've been given.

Small faith is not an insufficiency. We've simply not known how to measure the value of the mustard seed faith within us. How we measure a thing determines its worth. The scales must be aligned properly and the gold within the believer must be valued based upon what Jesus says, not measured by the defeats and loses we've endured.