At a conference on faith, one of the main speakers, Lysa TerKeurst, defined life as, “Not what I expected.” In viewing events in the gospels, I’m sure the disciples would have agreed with that definition.

It seemed Jesus was always doing the unexpected and challenging His followers. We hear the phrase, “O you of little faith” a number of times. It’s Jesus addressing His disciples! Hmmm, not what I expected.

First, Jesus is in a boat with His men when a furious storm comes up without warning. The panicked men cry for Jesus to save them from drowning and He stills the wind and waves (Matthew 8:26).

The next time we hear Jesus say, “O you of little faith,” it is directly to Peter who had just walked on water with Jesus! Unfortunately, Peter takes His eyes off Jesus, becomes afraid, and begins to sink. Jesus even adds, “Why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).

Jesus also uses the phrase when the disciples are fretting over forgotten bread, which was a little ridiculous since they had witnessed Him feeding both the crowds of 5000 men and 4000 men plus families (Matthew 16:8).

Jesus does not require that we have a lot of faith, just some faith, even as much as a tiny seed. The key may be to have more faith than doubt. Remember the plea of the father of the demon possessed boy, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

While life regularly surprises us with “not what [we] expected,” we should take the following advice: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a).