A Faith That Can Move Mountains

The word faith is a common word that believers and churches like to use

often; it is a word that we as Christians are familiar with because we know

that in order to be believers in Christ we are supposed to have to faith in

God. But do we look at faith as just a word, something that we must acquire

in order to be a Christian? Or do we realize the true meaning behind faith,

 is more than just a word that is used as an noun, but that having faith is

much like using a verb in a sentences, it has action and it grows. In James

2:14; James goes on to explain that it takes more than saying you have

faith, but that faith must have action. “What good is it, dear brothers and

sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that

kind of faith save anyone?” Thus, simply saying you have faith is not

enough, we must show our faith by our actions and behaviors to have true

faith.

As I continue to grow my faith in God, I begin to discover for myself through

studying God’s Word that faith requires me to take action. Although, it is

important to study God’s word, at times we don’t realize the importance of

what we have studied or fully learn the lesson until we have trials and test

in our own lives. This can be said for me when it came to truly learning

what faith is and knowing that God is faithful. It wasn’t until God stripped

away aspects of my life that I counted on and put my faith in, and for my

finances to be low to the point I was living off of my loan money for me to

realize that my faith only needed to be placed in the Lord. It was also in

those times, during this pruning process that God allowed my faith to go

through many test so that my faith could grow, and so that I could learn to

worship and praise God through the storm, and with the little that I had.

James 1:3-4 states; for you know that when your faith is tested, your

endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance

is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Thus,

in order for our faith to grow, in order for us to be fully developed we must

have trials that appear to push us beyond or limits and that make us

uncomfortable. It is in these uncomfortable times that we learn to surrender

our will and our way to God, and learn to fully depend on Him. Therefore,

our trials create in us a reliance to God, and we can have active faith

because God is faithful to us during the testing of our faith.

Not only do we need active faith that is learned through test and trials, we

also need to realize that a firm faith in God has the ability to move

mountains. God having the ability to move mountains means with faith in

God we can accomplish and do far beyond what we can imagine. It means

we believe that God can do what seems impossible. It means we know

God can be our provider when the bank account is low, it means we know

God can be a healer when we or our loved ones are sick physically or

spiritually, it means to trust God with the next big step in our lives because

He predestined our purpose in the beginning of the world, and it means that

we trust God with our everything. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus speaks of this

faith that is able to move mountains, “You don’t have enough faith, Jesus

told them. I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard

seed, you could say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it would

move. Nothing would be impossible.” Here is the thing, Jesus is only

asking us to have  faith the size of a mustard seed. If you know the size of

a mustard seed you realize that it is much smaller than a pea; as mustard

seeds are about 1 to 2 millimeters in size. When I taught my fourth and fifth

grade Sunday school class, about having faith the size of a mustard seed,

they were amazed that Jesus was asking them to have faith the size of

something that is so small. But what I taught my Sunday school class that

day, and what is very important for us to realize is that mustard seeds don’t

always stay so small, they grow into mustard trees which can be as big as

20 feet! And so that is the type of faith Jesus is asking us to have that can

move mountains. That our faith starts as small as a mustard seed, but as

we go through trials and the pruning process our faith grows big and strong

like mustard seeds. This type of faith in God can move mountains, it can

accomplish what seems to be impossible. The faith to move mountains

means you put all of your faith in God and not in worldly things or in people.

So I challenge all of us to have faith like mustard seeds, to water and take

care of your mustard seed, and let it grow into big mustard trees; the faith

that can move mountains by just speaking it into existences.

With Love,

Courtney Evans