Mustard Seed Faith

“I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." (Matthew 17:20)

Seems simple right? All Jesus asks is for us to have faith as small as a mustard seed. Have you ever seen a mustard seed? It is the smallest seed of all plants, yet under proper conditions, it can grow into a ten foot tall tree. And if our faith was just that size, nothing would be impossible for us. But why can’t we move the mountains in our lives? Disappointedly it’s because we have so little faith.
I have had the honor and privilege of being close to a 13-year-old boy who battles every day with brain tumors. Nearly eight months ago, he was living a normal life. And then suddenly a chronic headache and severe dizziness led to a diagnosis of cancer.
His life has been turned upside down and I have watched by the sidelines how this disease has slowly impacted his speech and mobility. One day you’re playing basketball with your friends and in a blink of an eye, you have lost all ability to walk and speak. In fact, every life activity must now be done with the help of his parents and loved ones. This young boy has every reason to give up but his faith tells him to hold on. Although physically he has been impaired, spiritually he has been renewed. Although doctors claim he won’t live, God has given him a new life. Although there isn’t a cure for his cancer, God continues to work miraculously through his life. His faith is the size of a mustard seed and I have been deeply blessed by watching him take control over cancer instead of allowing cancer to take control over him.
I hate to think how quickly I would have given up. Even worse, I may have spent endless hours asking God, “Why me?” But this young boy looks at his suffering as a means of bringing others to Christ. The doctors are baffled by his perseverance and he so boldly states, “It’s God within me. It's my faith that perseveres." This young boy never asks God, “Why me?” Instead, he asks “Why not me?”
When we reach that point in life where humanly there is no place to turn, that’s when God does many of His greatest works in our lives. But it becomes a choice for us to make; do we try to overcome the mountains by ourselves or do we give our mountains fully to God? He graciously gives us the Spirit within Him that allows us to do the impossible. The question is, do we really believe we have the power and authority through Jesus Christ to do the impossible? How you answer that question determines the size of your faith. Unfortunately for me, it was that question that made me realize my faith was smaller than a speck of dust that rests on top of the mustard seed.
Today, let our prayers be for a deeper and more trusting faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for our faith to be the size of a mustard seed so that when mountains form in our paths, we can remove them through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Pray each day to be filled with God’s divine Spirit. Perhaps when we begin to truly have the faith that Jesus so deeply desires of us, this is the moment when our faith grows to become a ten foot tall plant.