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. Matthew 17:20
What does it mean to have the faith of a mustard seed ? Why would Jesus compare faith to a mustard seed? Because it’s so small?
Let’s think about a mustard seed for a minute…
“THE PLANT ITSELF…
1. The mustard plant is well known for its hot-flavored seeds
2. Among seeds sown in a garden it was generally the smallest
3. As a plant, it reaches ten, sometimes fifteen feet in height
4. In the fall of the year, its branches have become rigid, and
the plant often serves as a shelter for birds of many kinds” (executionaloutlines.com)
What does the Bible say about these natural occurrences?
18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and where unto shall I resemble it?
19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. (Luke chapter 13)
So it’s probably safe to say that a mustard seed is about the equivalent to my Chihuahua (chi-wah-wuh), “Missy”. She looks like a rat and might weigh a pound soaking wet. She is a tea cup mix, she’s so old she barely has any teeth left, and if you blow on her she just might get lost in the wind.
She’s tiny and frail. But she will growl, bark and snap at any human or animal whom she feels is a threat. It appears as if she doesn’t even know how small she really is even when facing another dog 20 times her size. She still seems to think she’s the bigger dog. If she is continuously provoked her aggression with grow larger. I have never seen her back down from a threat, and she always wins. She can send that big lab dog in my back yard off whimpering without ever even touching him.
The mustard seed “is generally the smallest.” (As is my dog.) And when planted among all the other, BIGGER seeds, it doesn’t seem to even notice. It grows as if it thinks its just as big as all the rest of them, and “it reaches ten, sometimes fifteen feet in height.” It grows and becomes a shelter and refuge to the “fowls of the air” or, birds.
It is not the small amount of faith that will move mountains. But it is the small amount of faith that will GROW into something so large that it can move mountains. This is why it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to move a mountain. Because a mustard seed doesn’t even know its really small. The size of the seed is irrelevant. The size of the bigger seeds around it are irrelevant. Because ultimately, that tiny seed is going to outshine them all. Its going to grow large enough to become a shelter. Its going to grow something that seems impossible to have come from that tiny little seed.
That impossibility is where the faith to move mountains is found!!!
Jesus compares heaven to it in Luke 13;18-19 because heaven grows as “the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it” or, as souls turn from sin and find their way to God and into the gates of heaven. “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden and it grew, and waxed a great tree.” Or, heaven grows because man, WE the people, plant those seeds of faith in Christ through our witness.
Just some things on my mind lately…
Lord, give me that faith in the coming months. I am going to need it.
~Porcelain Solider
