To answer your good question, let’s read Luke 17:3-6, “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”  In verses 3-4, the Lord had taught His disciples the principle of continual forgiveness.  This instruction from the Lord seemed so difficult to the disciples that they felt the need of an increase of faith.  They realized their own weakness in harboring resentment, so they asked the Lord to increase their faith.  They certainly went to right person.  Christ is the ‘author and finisher of our faith.’ (Heb. 12:2)

The Lord responded to the disciples’ request by telling them what they could accomplish if they had ‘faith as a grain of mustard seed.’  It’s not the quantity of faith that is important, it is the quality of faith.  With the smallest amount of faith they could uproot and replant trees.  On another occasion, the Lord said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20)  What is the Lord telling His disciples?  I believe He was showing them that with even a tiny amount of faith they could uproot tree and move mountains.  If they can do that, then surely they should be able to offer forgiveness to those who had offended them, even if they were offended over and over.

It’s true that the Lord Jesus rebuked the disciples because of their lack of faith.  When the Lord and His disciples were in a ship and a storm arose, the disciples became afraid.  The Lord said to them in Matthew 8:26, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.”  Our faith should be a growing faith, each day becoming more and more confident in the love, purpose, and power of our Lord.  There is a reason the Lord used the mustard seed as the object to prove a point to His disciples.  Mark 4:31-32 says, “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is LESS than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh GREATER than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.”  The mustard seed is very small, but it grows into the mustard tree which is very large.

Hopefully, we all realize that we are saved by faith alone, but our need of faith doesn’t end there.  We need to exercise our faith in the Lord throughout our lives.  We have in Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38 that same important message, “The just shall live by faith.”  Ephesians 6:16 tells us to take “the shield of faith.”  2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”  We need faith for our daily lives, and just as the disciples asked for an increase in faith, we should also be before the Lord, asking for that ‘daily faith’ that we need to live for Him.  (208.8)