Growing Faith Through Obedience

One day the apostles said to the Lord, "We need more faith; tell us how to get it."  "Even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed," the Lord answered, "you could say to this mulberry tree, 'May God uproot you and throw you into the sea,' and it would obey you!"  "When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn't just sit down and eat.  He must first prepare his master's meal and serve him his supper before eating his own.  And the servant is not even thanked, because he is merely doing what he is supposed to do.  In the same way, when you obey me you should say, 'We are not worthy of praise.  We are servants who have simply done our duty.'"  

In these verses, the disciples ask Jesus how to get more faith.  We might expect that Jesus would tell them to pray more, fast more, seek Him more, give more, etc.  This is not the response of Jesus though. So what one thing does Jesus focus on that will help these disciples increase their faith?  His answer from the story He tells them seems two-fold to me.  Obviously, Jesus is the master in the story and we are the servants. 

He seems to first make the point that the servant is OBEDIENT in his every day job and his service to his master.   We too need to be obedient in our every day lives as well as our service to Him. Whatever He has created us to do, we should be doing it!  Whatever area(s) He has called us to serve in, we should be obedient in serving Him!  Okay, this seems simple enough...but wait...there is a little more to it....

Not only does Jesus explain that our OBEDIENCE will increase our faith, but also our ATTITUDE behind our obedience to Him.  The servant in the story does not expect a "thank you" for doing his job and serving his master.  He does it WITHOUT expectation of praise. How about us?  As a servant of God, we should strive to obey WITHOUT expectation of thanks or praise.  If we are truly working for God and serving Him alone, then we KNOW from other promises that we have a reward GREATER than any person could offer us on this planet.  Jesus is trying to explain to His disciples that if they would OBEY with this kind of attitude, then their faith WILL grow.  

How about it team?  Can we practice this and watch our team grow in faith??  Jesus says it works...so why not??  Let's go for it!