Big Mountains

Big Mountains

Read: Matthew 17:14-21

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 17:20

“Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, and looks to that alone; laughs at all impossibilities and cries: It shall be done.”

—Charles Wesley

IN WORD The key to having mountain-moving faith is not the size of our faith. A mustard seed’s worth is enough. The key to this faith is the size of our God. And there is no shortfall there. Jesus is clear: Nothing will be impossible.

Why, then, don’t we experience dramatic answers to our prayers as often as we’d like? If our faith isn’t too small—and it’s hard to get smaller than a mustard seed, so that can’t be the problem—and our God is so big, what’s the problem? It’s a matter of perception. Though God is big, our expectations for Him are not. Or they are misplaced. One way or another, they do not accurately reflect His power and His goodness and His wisdom. We misunderstand one of these three attributes. The answer to the immobility of our mountains is within us: It all depends on how we see God.

Our inclination is to pray that God will move our mountains—according to our wisdom—so that we can see Him as able and willing. In His mercy, He sometimes answers. But God’s inclination is to reverse the order. He wants us to see Him as able and willing before we pray. Then we will see mountains move—according to His wisdom.

IN DEED Are there issues that overwhelm you? Relax and rejoice! God is teaching you an invaluable lesson about Himself. If you are crushed under the burden, He has you in a good place. He will drive us to this place whenever our problems are large and He is small in our eyes. He will let us be defeated so that we’ll have no choice but to turn our eyes toward Him. He will let us come to the end of our own abilities in order to accomplish His desire. What is this desire? For us to see Him as so large that everything else becomes small. But the mountains will usually remain until we see Him this way. Faith precedes experience.