Our Lord’s answer seems a little strange in the sense that He does not directly reply with any grant to their request or any offer of help.
Likewise, in Matthew 17, the disciples had asked for help from Jesus, because they could not cure someone. Here is that story. A man brought his son to the disciples. The son was “… a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water”. “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” Matthew 17:15-19.
But, notice a similar reply by Jesus.
“And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew 17:20.
In both Scriptures, our Lord does speak about the power of faith. Thereby, He was encouraging them about seeking faith. However, here too, our Lord’s answer seems a little strange in the sense that He does not directly reply with any grant to their request or any offer of help.
An explanation to the reason for our Lord’s “strange” answer was the attitude of the disciples. Notice that in the Scripture for today, the disciples said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”. The disciples focused on their faith. Moreover, the disciples did not ask for faith, they said: “Increase our faith!”. They may have thought they had considerable faith; they merely asked for an increase in their faith.
Jesus was saying in effect: “So, you think you have faith? …”.
Likewise, in the second Scripture, the disciples were also presumptuous about their faith. “Why could we not drive it out?”
Again, Jesus was saying in effect: “So, you think you have faith? …”.
The lesson today for us is to remember that Jesus is “the author and perfecter of faith”. Hebrews 12:2. We must fix our eyes on him, rather than fix our eyes on “our faith”.
We can see the practical importance of this point when we consider that there are many that believe that God loves everyone and Christ died for everyone and that the only difference between the saved and the unsaved is “their” faith. They get their own faith through their own free will. They keep their own faith through their own free will.
However, those who believe in Reformed Doctrine a/k/a Calvinism do not trust themselves. They fix their eyes on Jesus and trust Him to give them that initial faith. They fix their eyes on Jesus and trust Him to keep their faith. They fix their eyes on Jesus to handle all the points of salvation from beginning to end. They know that if even 1% of salvation is dependent on themselves that they would not achieve salvation. They don’t consider it “their” faith. Rather, they realize faith is a gift of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 