Nothing will be impossible for you. – Matthew 17:20
When you receive a credit card or apply for a new service of some sort, you are required to accept a long list of Terms and Conditions. Sometimes the fine print is truly too fine to read without magnification. Did you ever stop to think that, while God’s love for you is unconditional, there are Terms and Conditions for some of His promises?
The full version of today’s verse contains a challenge from Jesus to his disciples. The Lord had told them He had given them power to cast out demons (Matthew 10:1), and the disciples later tried, but failed. When they asked Jesus why, the Lord responded with the illustration of a mustard seed, one of the tiniest of seeds in the plant kingdom. Only a mustard seed’s worth of faith, Jesus said, would let them pick up and take on the mightiest of actions. A mustard seed’s worth of faith could move mountains!
There may not be any lofty mountains in your way today – no Everest for you to climb or Kilimanjaro to get out of your way. Your mountain might be dealing with the illness, unpaid bills, rebellious children, or general anxiety. Do you have the mustard seed faith to deal with your own personal mountains? A wise pastor has said that “mountain moving faith comes from looking at God, not looking at the mountain.” He also encouraged you to know that kind of faith comes as you walk day to day with your Lord.
Men and women in the upper echelons of government face mountain-sized problems most days. Pray that they would seek to know God in such a way that they rely on Him to guide them in the faith that would move those mountains, faith in His own dear Son, Jesus Christ.
Today’s Verse: Matthew 17:20
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Hebrews 11:1-3, 32-40
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
