As a grain of mustard seed

Matthew 17:20

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

A man had just brought his son to Jesus, who was lunatic and sore vexed, and the disciples of Christ were unable to cure the lad. And when the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast the devil out, Jesus told them it was because of their unbelief. Their unbelief! What an inhibitor unbelief is! What an impeder, and what a stinter of divine powers! Unbelief stands stubbornly between us and the Lord, hindering us from accomplishing the deeds the Lord would have us to accomplish, and from getting prayers answered as we desire. I don’t understand all things about Christ’s answer to His disciples, but I know that there is only one thing that He required of them in order that they might be able to be used of God to cure others. That was faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now, you and I can see immediately that He is not requiring great faith. He is only requiring little faith that is placed in a great God! Faith as a grain of mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds germinates to become the greatest of all herbs! But it just starts as a small seed! That huge tree was once just a grain of a seed in the ground waiting to blossom when given the proper conditions.

You see, brethren, our faith is the same way. Our faith may be tiny like a seed, but when it is placed securely in the ground, it can bring forth something great. For you see! Our faith must be anchored in Christ! We do not need huge faith, just enough faith to be placed in the great One. For the ground is what develops and grows and sprouts the seed. So Christ is the One who makes something great of our faith. All that is needed today is to take the infinitesimally small seed of faith that you have and place it firmly in the ground of our Savior, and see what He might do with it. Faith as a grain of mustard seed! And then, if we will place it all in Him, nothing shall be impossible unto us. The only other requirement He lists is that of prayer and fasting. Do we truly want the power of God? Do we truly want God’s best? Do we truly want a great mustard tree to grow from the little seed we’ve planted? Do we truly want to remove mountains and hills? Often, these things are only available through prayer and fasting. The Lord can do glorious things when our faith is placed in Him, but how much more can He do when we get alone with Him, remove all distractions and fleshly appetites, and give ourselves to prayer and fasting! What amazing results may ensue!

Now, I say to you, if there is anything that you need faith for today, just place the little seed you have in Christ. Do not seek to work up faith, or increase your own faith. God is the one who increases our faith. Just anchor it completely and absolutely in Christ. Put all your life on this Rock. Place every guess and every hope and every dream in the palm of His hand, and leave away trusting Him. And if you shall trust Him, as a little child trusts his mother or father, you shall certainly see the grain of mustard seed become a tree of God’s goodness and grace and blessing.

“Father, we thank You for this teaching of Christ that comforts and challenges us all at the same time. It comforts us that we do not need to have the largest amount of faith in the world, we just need to know where to place it. It challenges us because we often give too much of our minds to the doubts that assail and assault us. May we turn away from those thoughts, and instead turn to Christ and place everything in Him. The grain of mustard seed truly has no power of its own and can do nothing without the proper ground. So our faith will never blossom unless it is completely in Your hand and under Your control. Therefore, we give it all to You, trusting You to take our little seed, and do tremendous and amazing things by Your own power. And we shall praise You for it. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, Amen.”