Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 17-18.

I find it interesting that when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, He first told them, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  Then He followed that up with a short parable which had the point, “when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'”  Later in today’s passage, Jesus tells a story about a Pharisee and tax collector who were praying in the temple.  The Pharisee thanked God that he was a better person than those around him like the tax collector.  The tax collector on the other hand prayed, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Jesus told us we should be like the tax collector, not the Pharisee.  These two things together give us a clear picture how we should view serving God and those around us.  No matter what we have done, we are still unworthy of the blessings God has given us.  Equally, we are not better than others, not even those we perceive as not doing God’s will.  We need to stop worrying about if we have enough faith, or even thinking that our faith is not enough.  Jesus told us that we don’t need much faith, just the amount of a mustard seed, and that all we need to do is what God directs us to do.  We need to stop looking for the kingdom of God, because it is already in our midst, or, as the translators’ note for Chapter 17 verse 20 says, it is within us.  Let us not look for more faith, or for rest from our works.  God is within us and will give us the faith we need to do His will if we seek to do it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.