Matthew 17:14-21

14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”


17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
 
 
Faith as small as a mustard seed.


Tonight while study the Word, my wife and I found ourselves reading this scripture. This is funny because we originally began our study by reading James 2:14, which talks about Faith without work being dead. However, God had different plans for us.



After briefly discussing our original scripture my wife told me to look up Faith as small as a mustard seed. At first I was a little perturbed because it was my night to pick the scripture and I thought that I had picked a good one to read. Still, I calmed down and put the words in our bible search engine and it pulled up the above scripture.



Now I had read this scripture many times before but I had never truly studied it. I, like most of us, only referred to this scripture during trying times. I used it mostly to stay afloat by telling myself, “If I only have faith of a mustard seed, I can move this mountain out of my way.” However, in studying the scripture I found a much deeper meaning to Jesus’ words.



If we can move past the moving of the mountains part for a second and focus on what Jesus said after those words. His words were if you have faith as small as a mustard seed Nothing will be impossible for you. Now this is something to be joyous about because our Savior said that with minimal faith nothing is impossible. But before we get ahead of ourselves we must look at the twenty-first verse which says, however this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Now I find this verse powerful in many different ways. First it tells us that even for us to achieve faith as small as a mustard seed we must pray and fast. Some of us believed that we are born with this faith because our parents or grandparents possessed this kind of faith. But the Word of God says no, to have the smallest amount of faith we must pray and fast.

Secondly, I looked at this verse for what could be. If such power could come out of faith as small as a mustard seed and all I have to do is pray and fast, what will happen if I begin to pray and fast wholeheartedly? Then I could rid myself of my anger problem, I could conquer any addiction that I have, I could live my life in peace even through the storm, and most of all I can have a stronger and better relationship with God through Christ Jesus. All because my Faith has grown and multiplied from it’s mustard seed beginning.

This is what I believed that Jesus is trying to tell us through this scripture. With a minimal amount of faith you can do anything, but even this faith is not given, rather it is achieved through prayer and fasting. The more that you immerse yourself into these two things the more your faith and your relationship with Him will grow.



After I realized this I felt foolish for thinking that my wife was trying to cut in on my scripture. Adding this scripture to our studies did not do anything but enhance our spiritual intake for the night. Not only did we learn that Faith without work is dead, but we also learned how to build up our faith. I am so glad that I did not miss out on my blessing by being upset at my wife. I would have been mad in vain because, like she is all of the time, she was right and I was wrong! God Bless!