Faith To Move A Mountain

If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,” and it would obey you!

Luke 17:6

A bedridden young girl lay in the dormitory of a Christian orphanage in Japan. After World War II, she had been left to die by a society that placed no value on the lives of the many half-Japanese/half-American children. One evening the girl heard a sermon on how having faith—even as small as a mustard seed—can enable a person through prayer to accomplish great things, like moving mountains or asking God to uproot a tree and cast it into the sea. She was struck by this, because her greatest desire was to see Japan’s Inland Sea again. She was too ill to go to the beach herself, and a large mountain sat between the orphanage building and the sea, blocking her view.

At bedtime she prayed that God would move that mountain. Irene, the missionary director, said gently, “No, child. God wouldn’t want to move a big mountain like that. He meant we should pray about the big mountains of trials in our lives.” But the little girl continued to pray, and the other orphan girls gathered at her bedside, praying together for God to move the mountain. Irene went on furlough in England for several months, and when she returned, she saw the girls clustered in front of the window. Looking out, Irene could hardly believe what she saw—the Inland Sea in full view!

“We saw many bulldozers going up and down the mountain moving dirt,” they explained. Irene checked with town officials and found that because the coastal waves were eroding the land, the earth had to be moved from the mountain to backfill the coastline. Sure enough, the workers had moved the mountain and “cast it into the sea.” A few months later, the orphan who had prayed with mountain-moving faith died. And although the old orphanage has been torn down, many years later the view of the Inland Sea is still there, reminding us of that little girl’s great lesson in faith.

Lord, grant us the faith to believe all your promises and to pray with perseverance, trusting you to move even things that look immovable and impossible.

Faith comes from looking at God, not at the mountain.

Bill Hybels(1951–), American pastor