“…after the fire came a gentle whisper.” Those words from I Kings 19:12 reflect something of the character of God and the ways of God that are often very unsettling to us. When we are in trouble or in great need we want God to respond in very powerful and dramatic ways. Most often He responds with a light touch, a gentle whisper. Sometimes He is completely silent. Before we dismiss God’s response as faulty or insufficient, perhaps we would do well to think more deeply. What is God saying to us and about us when He responds to our great needs with a light touch? He is paying us the highest of compliments. In the response of a light touch, God is indicating His confidence in who we are and what we can accomplish as people of faith in Him. God sees our faith in Him differently than many of us. We seem to operate as if faith in Him is not enough. You may remember the moment the disciples were in a boat caught in a fierce storm. They thought they were about to die. Jesus was with them but He was asleep. Talk about a light touch! In Mark 4:38 they yell at Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He calmed the storm and said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Then v41 records their response, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him?’” They were more terrified at the sight of Jesus commanding the waves than the power of the waves. Your faith in Christ connects you to awesome power. Perhaps God is inviting you to make better use of that power before you panic or assume that God needs to do something else. Jesus calls the disciples out concerning the use of their faith. How you think about and use your faith says much about you. When we use our faith effectively, we raise the bar on our discipleship and we honor the God who pays us the high compliment of responding to us with a light touch.