“Because of your little faith,” He told them. “For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
However, this kind of faith does not come out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:20-21 HCSB
In our Scripture passage today, a man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples. The boy was plagued by a demon which was causing horrible seizures. This man asked the disciples to remove the demon, but they were unable to do so. He later came back and brought the boy to Jesus. When the man told Jesus that he had brought the boy to the disciples before, Jesus had some pretty harsh words for his disciples. In Matthew 17:17, Jesus told his disciples, “You unbelieving and rebellious generation! How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” Later the disciples, probably still stinging from that rebuke, were perplexed as to why they could not drive out this demon. When they asked Jesus why He responded by telling them that it was due to their lack of faith. But He goes on to tell them that if they only had faith the size of a mustard seed they could move a mountain. If you have never seen a mustard seed, I must tell you it is tiny. About the size of your average flea. I’ve seen it described as about 1/5 the size of a peppercorn. But this tiny little seed can grow into a huge tree.
We must have a little faith as a starting point. If we have no faith, we can accomplish nothing. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. We can see from Jesus’ rebuke of His disciples in verse 17 that He was not pleased. I think back to times when I prayed without faith, and I can only imagine Jesus shaking His head and wondering how long He would have to put up with me. I can only imagine him being fed up with me and my rebellious ways. He refers to them as an unbelieving generation. When we lack faith, we are unbelieving. We like to say that we believe in God but then we live as though we don’t. Last night our pastor said that we cannot call ourselves Christians and live contradictory to the Bible. That really stuck with me. How many times have I lived my life in a way that contradicted what I had learned in the Bible? How many times must I have exhibited a lack of faith.
We think of faith as trusting that God will come through when we are asking for something. But faith also includes believing that He exists, believing in heaven and in hell and living our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him. So am I the only one who has this problem? Have you ever felt that you had no faith at all? Maybe you feel like you have just a little faith. Well, Jesus clearly tells us that a little faith can go a long way. He can work with that. But He tells us that it can only be obtained through prayer and fasting.
A little faith is a good place to start, but when we fast it means that we take time out of doing something we love and use that time to focus on God. It may mean forsaking a favorite food or giving up something like time on social media or watching television. If we have just a little faith we can pray to God. We can ask Him to strengthen our faith. He can work with a little faith.
Mercy Me released a song called “Even If” in 2017. The lyrics say, “They say it only takes a little faith to move a mountain, good thing, a little faith is all I have right now.” Faith, like a mustard seed can be grown. We can grow our faith by focusing on God and praying to Him.
Above all we must realize that even if God doesn’t do as we ask, He still remains worthy of our honor and our praise. But above all we must realize that He can work with just a tiny amount of faith. He can help us to grow that faith in Him. Turn to God. Trust in Him today. Give Him glory and honor and praise in all you do.
Give Him all the faith you can muster, He can work with that.
Have a great day!