by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Apr. 15, 2026) — Life is daily.
Get up, get ready, attend to business, wind down, and rest.
Do it again tomorrow.
Think of the dailiness that Abraham, the father of faith, endured.
We meet him when he is 75. Before that, just hundreds of days.
One day, God surprised him.
Pack up and leave. Go where? I’ll tell you when you get there. And, by the way, you will father a nation and be a blessing to all families (Genesis 12:1–3, my paraphrase).
Several years later, God calls again, and Abraham reminds Him of what, so far, is a mostly empty promise. “You have given me no offspring” (Genesis 15:3).
Three chapters and many years span Genesis 12 and 15.
We read them in minutes.
Abraham lived the days.
A lot of drudgery.
Such is the humdrum of the gospel when we reach Luke 17.
Months have passed since Jesus called the Twelve to travel with Him.
They are used to the crowds.
They are aware of the Pharisees and their colleagues, who huddle on the fringe, spying for infractions. Lately, they have complained about the company Jesus keeps (“He receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2)) and sneered at His remarks about money (Luke 16:14).
The disciples have their private times with Jesus. The ministry is moving along. The faith of the followers is exercised day by day.
One day, Jesus startled them.
“Offenses will come,” He told the disciples (Luke 17:1).
They knew that. They witnessed them every time the Pharisees complained.
Jesus continued, “Rebuke the one who sins against you.”
They could do that. Gladly.
“If he repents, forgive.”
They could do that, too. Probably not so gladly.
“And if he sins against you seven times in a day and repents, forgive each time.”
Now, they balked.
This was more forgiveness than they had to give.
“Increase our faith,” they asked.
Not that they lacked faith, but they supposed they needed more of it to do what Jesus just said.
Having initiated the conversation, Jesus fleshed out two chronic concerns of His followers, both then and now.
1. How much faith do we need?
2. How do we apply faith to everyday life?
As usual, the Teacher taught with a parable.
1. How much faith do we need?
The disciples’ concern about their amount of faith was reasonable.
Jesus had chastised them more than once for their little faith and even asked once why they had no faith (Mark 4:40). On the other hand, He had commended the great faith of two Gentiles—a Roman centurion and a Syro-Phoenician woman.
How big must our faith be?
Tiny will do.
Jesus said “faith as a mustard seed” is enough for a mulberry tree to obey what you tell it. Another time, He said mustard-seed faith can move a mountain (Matthew 17:20).
Peter had only to remember the night he walked on water to understand the greatness of a little faith. One word from Jesus, “Come,” was enough for Peter to scamper out of the boat onto the waves.
“Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus asked when Peter feared he couldn’t walk any farther.
Read the rest here.