Big Faith, Little Faith

Matthew 17:20 KJV
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.

I've many times wondered what Jesus meant when he said things like 'oh ye of little faith!'. And then goes on to say 'if your faith is as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains'!! To make things more confusing, he explains that the mustard seed is the littlest of seeds!!(mark 4:31)

So what exactly is the 'size' of faith that we need to have? Let me share what I think. 

We all know about powerful preachers, pastors evangelists and the likes who preach powerful messages to crowds of people and 'make' amazing things happen like miraculous healings, prophetic words and insights and so on. Now no one needs to tell you that that kind of activity requires big faith as opposed to that required perhaps in your relatively normal daily life!

As I ruminated on this fact and scenario, this is what I realised: We have two sizes of faith. 

- Mustard seed size faith (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6) and

- Little faith (Matthew 6:30, Matthew 8:26)

This is confusing because mustard seed is very little to us. So  I updated the sizing to make it easier to relate with. So we actually have:

- Little faith (mustard seed faith)

- No faith (little faith).

Sorry, there is nothing like big faith!!

When the bible says we have little faith, what it really means is that we have no faith (in God)!! We are measuring the possibility of our need and request by our own ability and not trusting in God. 

 (Matthew 8:26 NLT) Jesus responded, "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

On the other hand, when we have the slightest trust in God, wonders can happen. You will agree with me that moving a mountain like everest, for example, is well, impossible! But the Bible says even that can be achieved with a mustard seed size faith (define  little faith here). Now, how much faith do u think will be needed to sort out your rent, bills, or job or health? Can u make the comparism? 

So really its either you have faith (little faith/mustard seed faith) or you have no faith. 

Friends, let's train ourselves to have God as the focus of our faith! Faith in ourselves or other people or circumstances is no faith! 

(Matthew 21:21 KJV)Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Have a faith-filled Sunday!!

Selah

Picture credits: intuitiontosucceed.academy and Wikipedia