Read Matthew 17:14-21. No really…read that first. I’ll wait.
I had puny faith. I’m sorry, I meant “faith the size of a mustard seed.” I remember sermons dating back even to Sunday school where we’d get little mustard seeds in baggies and learn about how God can do great big things if we just had little itty-bitty faith…even as small as that mustard seed. It’s true, God can do great things with little, but He can also do great things with nothing. (Think:Creation).
The problem is this: God doesn’t want your little mustard-seed sized faith. Jesus doesn’t either.
Jesus was annoyed most by two things: 1) Self-Righteous Pharisees; 2) The itty-bitty faith of His Disciples. Go through the book of Matthew alone and count how many times He said “O Ye of Little Faith?” Annoyed. Often. (Matthew 6:30; Matthew 8:26; Matthew 14:31; Matthew 16:8)
The truth is this: It takes {great} faith to please God. Read Hebrews 11. The Hall of Faith. Not one puny example. Faith by nature embodies the concept of “resting your whole weight upon” something. It’s almost as if you either have faith or you don’t, there is no in between.
A mustard seed has a couple of characteristic that makes it quite an interesting and incredible parable, when examined:
- Unlike some seeds (tomato being a prime example), you don’t have to worry about protecting the seed from cross-pollination by “bagging”, “distance”, “timing”, or other farming methods. A tomato is affected by anything planted near it, as well as some pepper seeds (google it, apparently it’s fun…), but a mustard seed is not. By faith, we too must be unaffected by the circumstances we have been placed in or are surrounded by. Purpose may seem impossible, but the mustard seed says “that’s not my problem…a tree I’ll be…wait and see.
- A mustard-seed may in fact be small in size, but the miracle is in the relationship between the seed and the reality of the mustard tree. The seed produced phenomenal growth, point blank. Does your faith produce phenomenal spiritual growth in your own life? Does it produce phenomenal results for God’s Kingdom in the spread of the Gospel? That’s faith “as” a mustard seed.
- Faith is only as good as it’s object. We all have faith, and we exercise it daily. Faith isn’t in us, but in the object of our belief. For Christians, it’s God. If you vote, it’s in your political party. When you enter a restaurant, you have faith your chair will hold you up. Go buy a $2 kiddie tube and try floating across the Atlantic and see how far your ”faith” will get you. Most people fail because the object of their faith is secretly themselves. We fail ourselves daily. We’re terrible objects to place faith in. Releasing it all and placing it in the God of the universe is not such a bad idea.
- Faith must be connected to it’s God-given purpose. A mustard-seed has undeniable faith that it will be what it was designed to be. It does not have faith that it will become a watermelon plant if it would just believe. That’s a misappropriation of faith. If you take funds designed for one purpose and give them toward another purpose, that’s called misappropriation of funds. That’s illegal in most cases. It’s also precisely what we do when we make ourselves the object of our faith and begin wagging our fingers, demanding things from God not connected to our purpose. Jesus said in verse 20 “nothing shall be impossible unto you”. Even the word “unto” speaks of perception, not license. If you have true faith in, and according to the purposes of God, you literally do not perceive impossibilities. #wow
- Faith must have pureness in quality. Faith cannot be tainted. With mustard-sized faith, you can add 1 part mustard seed, 2 parts of you, 5 parts of your business, etc…and build a sort of mixed bag, or diversified portfolio of faith. Your faith must be untainted. The mustard seed is laser focused on becoming what it was created to be, despite it’s environment. It does not borrow tomato seeds, in case things don’t work out. There is no plan B with the mustard seed. There should be no plan B with our faith. It’s all in Christ. That’s faith “as” a mustard seed.
I was in the process of writing my own post about faith and I stumbled upon your post via google images as I searched for a picture of a mustard seed. I wanted to comment on how much I enjoyed reading your experiences and thoughts concerning faith. I especially like your point about the size of faith, and how important it is to grow our faith to it’s strongest potential. (A daily task.) Although we don’t share the same religion- I do enjoy your site and will continue and exploring your thoughts. Feel free to visit my blog at thereisagreenhill.blogspot.com. It’s still new and I’m still getting my thoughts in order but I’d love some comments on my own posts.
I wanted to copy this but there is not click spot to copy! Please add a click spot! Thanks for the information.
One more thing I learned about Jesus and the Kingdom.
Martha