October 6, 2025
Speaker: Pastor Brandon
Writer: Linda Waltersdorf Cobourn, EdD
Luke 17:5–10 | Psalm 7:16
My oldest son came to me a few weeks after the car accident that critically injured his father. “I just can’t forgive the driver,” he told me. “I wake up every day, angry at him.” His words were raw, honest, and heavy. The truck driver had run a red light, one moment of carelessness that changed everything. My husband’s body bore the pain, but our family carried the emotional weight. Each of my children struggled with anger, but Dennis carried it the longest.
In Luke 17:5 -10, the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. His reply is unexpected: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…” He doesn’t speak of grand gestures or dramatic miracles. He speaks of small, persistent faith—faith that moves us to obey, even when it’s hard.
Then Jesus shifts to a parable about a servant who, after working all day, comes in and continues to serve. No applause. No reward. Just quiet obedience. He’s speaking to believers, not about what we deserve, but about how we live.
Forgiveness, then, is not a feeling we wait for. It’s a command we follow.
Dennis’s journey toward forgiveness wasn’t immediate. It took time, prayer, and a shift in perspective. God worked on his heart, helping him see that accidents are rarely deliberate and that the man who hit Ron may have carried his own suffering.
When Dennis finally told me he had forgiven the driver, I thought of Psalm 7:16: “The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.” Forgiveness didn’t erase the pain. But it released Dennis from the grip of bitterness. It was a mustard seed moment: small, quiet, obedient.
Faith isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s the whisper that says, “I will forgive, even when I don’t feel like it.” It’s the servant’s heart that chooses obedience over recognition. And in that obedience, peace begins to grow.
Is there someone you struggle to forgive? A wound that still aches, a memory that still stings? Jesus doesn’t ask us to feel ready. He asks us to trust Him with mustard seed faith—to take the first step, however small, toward obedience.
Forgiveness may not come all at once. But each act of surrender, each prayer for grace, each decision to release the offense is a seed planted in faith. And God, in His mercy, brings the growth.
Closing Prayer
Gracious Father, Thank You for the quiet strength of mustard seed faith. Teach us to obey even when our hearts resist, and to forgive even when the pain lingers. Help us release bitterness and trust that You are working in every heart—including our own. May our small acts of obedience become seeds of peace, healing, and grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
