How many times have you heard a preacher or Sunday school/small group teacher say “if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move mountains?” If you have been in church very long you have probably heard that before. It is used many times when a church is facing what feels like insurmountable obstacles. The mustard seed concept is found in Matthew 17. I would caution us all to make sure that we “rightly divide the word of truth” as it says in 2 Timothy 2:15. By this I mean, we need to make sure that we read the entire context of a verse and not just pull one verse out as that could lead to us misleading people about what the verse says. In this case the context is a man brings his son to Jesus’ disciples to have demons cast out of him. Yet the disciples were unable to do it. Not knowing what else to do, the man takes his son to Jesus and says I brought my son to your disciples, but they couldn’t cure him (Mt. 17:16). Jesus then proceeds to rebuke the demons and they leave the boy. The disciples were curious as to why they couldn’t do that, after all they had seen Jesus do it before and they had done it as well. What happened this time? Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith (Mt. 17:20). We get a little more information about what Jesus was talking about in verse 21 where it says, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” What becomes clear is that the disciples had tried to cast out the demon themselves. They were trying to be the power source rather than being plugged into the Power (Jesus).
You and I are a lot like the disciples at times in our life aren’t we? Sometimes we remember the words of John 15:6, “For without Me, ye can do nothing.” And so we pray and we truly depend on Jesus and because of our belief, it seems as though mountains are moved. Yet at times, we think “oh this is no big deal, I’ve done this before” and so we forget how and why we were able to do it before. The end result is frustration and many times failure. The key is to remember a specific phrase in a commonly quoted Scripture. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENS ME.” Notice we are only able to do all things when Christ gives us the strength to do it. and Christ’s strength only comes through our utter dependence upon Him, first and foremost through prayer.
Are you facing a mountain in your life right now? Mountains come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it is a financial need, sometimes it deals with our marriage, our kids, school, friends, or any number of other things. The good news is, God already has the answer to our problem, even before we realize we have a problem. All we have to do is follow the words of a popular hymn, trust and obey!
By His grace and through His strength, may we live for him!