People of Little Faith
BMCC Sunday Sermon · 9 Aug 2026 · Speaker: JY
Some questions take seven years and still leave you without an answer. JY shared in this Sunday’s sermon a struggle she had carried for six or seven years — her longing to apply for further studies, met again and again with rejection or failure. For years she had encouraged herself with “God will surely help me,” believing that if her faith were firm enough, things would happen as she hoped. Yet reality kept teaching her otherwise. This question ultimately led her back to Matthew chapter fourteen — the story of Peter walking on water.
The episode comes after Jesus had fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Jesus went up the mountain alone to pray while the disciples set off across the lake. Late at night, with the waves rising, a figure approached on the water. The terrified disciples thought it was a ghost. Jesus said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” Peter climbed out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:29–31)
The word translated “little faith” comes from the Greek oligopistos. JY discovered something striking while preparing this message: the phrase appears only five or six times in the entire New Testament, and four or five of those occurrences are concentrated in Matthew’s Gospel alone. It is almost exclusively Matthew’s expression — and every time he uses it, he applies it to the disciples, not to unbelievers or to those who challenged Jesus.
This led JY to reconsider what “little faith” actually means. She had previously understood it like a measuring scale — more faith meant big faith, less faith meant small faith. So whenever she faced a challenge, she would push herself: “I can do it! God will make a way!” Yet she came to realize that this kind of self-encouragement was not grounded in her relationship with God at all, but in her own expectations of the outcome. What she was trusting, she recognized, was not God but her own projections of what God ought to do.
Was Peter really a person of little faith? JY looked again at the story. Of all the disciples terrified in that boat, Peter was the only one who dared to step out. He actually walked on the water. His faith was clearly not less than those who stayed behind. Why, then, did Jesus call him oligopistos? The problem, JY suggested, was not the quantity of Peter’s faith but the direction it was diverted. Peter’s gaze had been fixed on Jesus — he was moving toward Jesus, seeking a deeper relational bond — but once he stepped out of the boat and felt the force of the wind and waves, those waves replaced Jesus as the lens through which he interpreted his situation. This is a heart pulled in two directions — what scholars call a “double mind,” a divided heart.
JY proposed that “little faith” does not mean “no faith” but rather “faith stretched in two directions.” Genuine faith is not about pretending the storm does not exist, nor about forcing ourselves to believe the outcome will match our wishes. It is what she called an undivided relational trust — a constant re-orienting of our hearts toward God. She drew on the historical background of Matthew’s Gospel: written around AD 80 to 90, a time when the Temple had already been destroyed and early Christians were waiting for Christ’s return while facing suffering and profound uncertainty. In that context, Matthew’s repeated emphasis on faithfulness and trust in the midst of waiting was a message to a generation of believers: faith is not a guarantee that what you are waiting for will arrive on schedule. The deeper question is whether, in the long wait, your heart can remain turned toward God.
When Peter sank and cried out “Lord, save me!” — that was not the cry of a person of great faith. But JY called it a crucial turning point. In his fear, Peter still knew who to turn to. That is the most important thing about a person of little faith: not that they no longer fear, but that in the midst of fear, they choose to turn back to Jesus. Growth in faith is not the elimination of fear and doubt — it is the act of reorienting toward God, again and again.
JY closed by sharing that she plans to try applying for further studies again in August. She does not know the outcome, and she is still afraid of rejection. But what she hopes to change is where her faith rests — no longer in the result, but in her relationship with God and in the growth that the process itself carries. That process, she said, is itself an act of faith.
If you are in the middle of your own waves today — whether in career uncertainty, a relationship that has broken, struggles with your own identity, or tensions with family that remain unresolved — Blessed Ministry Community Church walks with you. This is a home that welcomes everyone, including those whose faith waxes and wanes, who walk on water one moment and begin to sink the next. Wherever you are on that journey, whenever you cry out “Lord, save me!” — the hand of Jesus is always outstretched.
