Isaiah 42:3

קָנֶה רָצוּץ לֹא יִשְׁבּוֹר וּפִשְׁתָּה כֵהָה לֹא יְכַבֶּנָּה לֶאֱמֶת יוֹצִיא מִשְׁפָּט׃

3 A bruised reed he will not break, and the failing wick shall he will not put out. He will bring justice in the truth.

קָנֶה רָצוּץ לֹא יִשְׁבּוֹר A bruised reed he will not break, A קָנֶה can be a stalk of grain or a reed growing out of the water of a river. רָצוּץ is the qal passive participle of רָצַץ, "crush." יִשְׁבּוֹר is the imperfect of שָׁבַר, "break," referring to anything from a bolder to a bone to a blade of grass. Forms of שָׁבַר occurs three times written plene (fully, with the holem-waw) but just once in this form. The others are Hosea 2:20 (אֶשְׁבּוֹר) and Jeremiah 28:12 (שְׁבוֹר).

וּפִשְׁתָּה כֵהָה לֹא יְכַבֶּנָּה and the failing wick he will not put out. פִשְׁתָּה means "flax," and it's no stretch from there to "wick." כֵהָה referring to a wick means "faint, dim," and is even less of a flame than "smoldering." This is a wick so dim that all that remains is a little orange glow that you can't see in daylight -- the lamp looks dead to anyone who isn't looking very carefully. Such a dim and fading flax is what the Lord will not יְכַבֶּנָּה, "put out," piel imperfect כָּבָה.

לֶאֱמֶת יוֹצִיא מִשְׁפָּט He will bring justice in the truth. We might translate לֶאֱמֶת "faithfully." Literally its "in truth" or "to the truth." יוֹצִיא is the hifil imperfect of יָצָה, "bring."

A bruised reed or a bent blade of grass would be easy to break, but Christ did not come into the world to do what would be easy. He came to do what no one else could do. He came to mend what was unmendable and fix what was beyond repair.

So how much faith inside of me is enough to be saved? Any amount of faith in Jesus is saving faith. A wick that is smoldering doesn't give off very much light -- but he will not snuff it out. What counts is not how much faith we have, but who our faith is in. So how much faith is in me? What counts is that the faith is there at all. The faith within us is a gift from God. It's the gift that brings us to eternal life.