Matthew 17:20 “ He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of 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.” Today's episode talks about what this verse means. Did Jesus really mean we will literally move mountains? Did the apostles really not have faith? If they didn't have faith what hope do we have? It also talks about how much God loves us and how different our lives would be if we lived in the power and authority that Jesus gave to us! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Can My Faith Really Move Mountains?
Matthew 17:20 “ He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of 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.”
This is a hard verse for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love it and I have it on a sticky not on the wall in front of where I work. However, I struggle with it. I am not sure I know exactly what it means and so I always skipped it and didn’t want to use it for today’s episode. That feeling inside to skip it is exactly why I didn’t. I have come to learn that the desire to skip things or avoid the hard things or the ones I don’t understand keeps me from growing. The Lord has so much to teach us and yet if we shy away from it we will miss out. The reason I love this verse and yet shy away from teaching about it is because I am not sure I fully understand it.
When I first decided to use this verse I thought it would be more of an episode where I explain my confusion and questions with it and yet don’t really provide any insight into it. However, I decided if I don’t understand something about it I should research it, look into it. With the age of electronics that we live in right now, you can have an answer to almost any question within minutes. That is what I did. I decided to read a few commentaries to find out what this verse is actually talking about. If you haven’t done that before, I highly suggest it. Type into your internet search bar whatever verse you are wanting more clarity on and then type “meaning of this verse,” or “commentary on this verse.” Once you read the commentary the verse will make so much more sense. What I love about it also is that you get to learn about what was going on at the time it was written, who it was being written to, or what words or customs were different back then and why that makes our interpretation of the verse difficult.
I think my biggest confusion with this verse was where it says, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” I feel as though I have a faith the size of a mustard seed and yet I don’t feel like I could say that to a mountain and it would move. Today, reading all of the commentary I realize that Jesus didn’t really mean move a mountain. According to the commentaries I read he was using the elements around them to illustrate His meaning. The mountain they were standing next too and a mustard seed they knew well to illustrate how small their faith needed to be to accomplish things that seemed impossible.
This felt reassuring to me as I do know God can do the impossible and I know if He can create the whole world out of nothing, He certainly could move a mountain. I guess I was just getting caught up in the words of it all. I am a perfectionist at times and so I truly felt like I was doing something wrong because as hard as I tried I did not believe if I told the mountain to move that it would move. Which leads me into the the other thing I often think, which is that if the apostles didn’t have the faith of a mustard seed after all that time what hope do I have? Do you ever think things like this? If he was chastising them for having little faith, what is He thinking about me? I bet you have, I think we all have.
This is why I also felt reassured when I read in the commentaries that Jesus was not saying that they didn’t have any faith or that they lost their faith. According to the commentaries I was reading, which I will of course put links to in the show notes, Jesus wanted them to know they didn’t need an abundance of faith, but they did need to believe in Him. Both articles stress that the apostles had faith. Jesus sent them out to do His will and they had all performed signs and wonders. They had just returned from going out and healing people and chasing out demons. They had the faith to do it. However, the commentaries seem to agree that the reason the apostles couldn’t do it in this case is because they were trying to do it with their own power and with their own strength. When they went out to do the work of Jesus, they were operating under His authority and yet when they came back, in this one instance, they forgot to rely on Jesus and were trying to do it with their own power, which of course we have no power, except that which Jesus gives us.
One of the articles says, “Faith is not simply believing in Jesus, rather continually depending on him.” The other article says that it was not that the apostles lost faith, it was more like they got caught up in the heat of the moment. This was reassuring to me because I can do the same thing. I can get so excited to pray over someone that I forget to invite the Lord in to do the healing. I will forget to stop and ask the Lord how He wants me to pray. I don’t think He is disappointed when we do this, I think he appreciates our enthusiasm and yet, we have no power without Him. We can do nothing on our own and yet we can do all things through Christ who stengthens us. If you find yourself rushing in to pray over someone in your own power, stop and ask Jesus to come and help you. Ask for Him to work through you. Ask for the Holy Spirit to give you the words to say. If you find you do this frequently ask God in your prayer time to help you grow in humility. Help you to remember to stop and invite Him in. I struggle with this and so I am learning just as we all are. I know He is the one that does the healing and yet I am so eager for Him to heal people that I forget to stop and ask Him to do it.
I hope this has brought some clarity to you as to what this verse means and how it applies to your life. The last line is such a great one. It says, “and nothing will be impossible for you.” I love this because I take God’s promises very seriously. Some people find them hard to believe, I am not one of those people. Some people probably think I am naive because I am so willing to believe them. I don’t wonder if God can raise people from the dead, I know He can. I don’t wonder if people will be healed I believe they will. I believe it until I they join God in heaven. I am the person at a wake wondering if the body will rise up and how we will explain that to others. I know people think I am crazy and some people do not want me to pray over them, that is just not something they are comfortable with and that is ok. God does not need us to lay hands on people to heal them. I don’t know where my ability to trust in God’s promises came from. I am so thankful I have it though.
My goal in life, my desire, more than anything else, is for every single person to know the love of God. To know that He loves them more than anything. That His love is consuming. His love is unconditional. His love fills all the holes and gaps the world has given us. He loves us when we are at our best and He loves us when we are at our worst. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more, which is great because it take the pressure off to try to earn His love. There is also nothing we can do to make Him love us less. He never looses an ounce of love, no matter how awful we might be to Him. Who else can you say that about?
My second goal is to help every single person realize the strength and power we have when we rely on the Holy Spirit that is living inside of us. That same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus front the dead. Can you imagine a world where we were all walking around and standing in the authority and power that Jesus gave us. The world would be such an amazing place. You would see so many miracles because that is the power you have through Christ. The power to do the same works He did and even great works. Do you want that? Do you want to be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Do you want to be able to be used by God to help heal your loved one? Do you want to do the impossible? Do you want to see all the mountains in your life moved? All you need to do is rely on the Lord. Give the Holy Spirit permission to be in your life, to be in charge of your life. When you do this, your life will never be the same again. When you learn to stand in the authority and power that Jesus gave you, you will never be the same. Your faith really can move the mountains in your life if your faith is in Jesus Christ, the one with all the power.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast today. Lord you are amazing and I ask you to show all those listening just how amazing you are. Lord I ask you to show each one of those listening one small thing you are doing in their lives. Open their spiritual eyes and allow them to see one tiny part of their life through your eyes. Lord there are so many people looking for healing and I know you are in each and every situation. We bring all those situations to you today Lord. I will not list them all as you know who they are and what they need. We thank you for being in them Lord! Lord, I am seeing the answers to so many of the prayers those around me are asking for and I thank you. Lord, I ask that you be with those who are not seeing the answers. Those who have been asking and have not been receiving the answers. I ask that you strengthen them and give them the persistence to keep asking and to praise you in the waiting. We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to remind you that the book I wrote, called Total Trust in God’s Save Embrace, is some insight into how I got to have the trust I do in the Lord. If you would like a copy I have a few more left on my website that I am happy to write a personal message to you and then send it out. I am also excited to let you all know I will be hosting a retreat this fall. I am meeting with the retreat center on Wednesday, so will have more details for you soon. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
https://lordsguidance.com/blogs/bible-verse-meaning/matthew-17-20-meaning
https://www.rethinknow.org/faith-as-small-as-a-mustard-seed-matthew-17-20-meaning/