Read Luke 17:5-10 with your family.

In today’s story those closest to Jesus asked him to grow their faith bigger. The thing is Jesus cannot grow our faith, only we can do that through our choice to believe.

Jesus closest followers did not understand that and thought Jesus could help them have bigger faith, more faith.

Like Jesus did so often, he did not answer the question or request directly, but instead he pointed them in a different direction. Jesus talked about the mustard seed – the smallest planting seed they knew about in Jesus’ time. Jesus told them if they had faith as big as something that small, they could do wonderful things.

Through the parable of the mustard seed Jesus told his followers that they have a job to do and they have already started doing it. However, they would not be rewarded for just starting the job, they had to finish it. And even when they finished it, why should they look for a reward, especially when they only did the simple part of the job and did not put effort into it.

Jesus knew that faith was something that would only come when his followers put effort into believing in God, more than they were already doing.