Mustard seed faith

So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as 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. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." – Matthew 17.20-21

I remember growing up a particular necklace that my mom had similar to the one in the photo. It was a small, simple mustard seed, and tiny thing that was encased in glass. She told me one time that it was a reminder to what the importance of having mustard seed sized faith. I haven't seed that necklace in decades, but every time I read this verse I think of Mom.

In this Jesus talks about the importance of 'mustard seed' sized faith. This kind of tiny faith, according to Jesus, isenough to move a mountain from one place to another. He says that mustard seed faith means that nothing is impossible.

I have said here before that I don’t really understand prayer. I do know through my faith and experience it works, but how?

This verse appears to say that if we have that tiny little bit of mustard sized seed faith we have the power to move mountains from one place to another. Obviously no matter how big our faith I am not going to move any mountain anywhere no matter how much I pray and fast.

So what does this mean? Clearly it is figurative. It speaks to the great power of prayer. How many times have we all prayed in seemingly impossible situations and then watched God work?

Though I don’t know how it works, I do know I can trust God and His word. He tells us here that by prayer and fasting (don't just skip over that bit about fasting) nothing is impossible with our God. There is no request too big to take to Him. He is not going to move Mt Everest to Mexico, but that kind of impossibility is a picture of how God works out the impossible. It also lets me know how vital prayer is to seeing great things done.

Just a side not before I leave this. We often hear some groups tell us that our prayers are not answered because we don't have 'enough faith.' When this happens they are telling us that Jesus was wrong. They tell us we need to have mountain sized faith, Jesus said that mustard seed sized faith is enough.

Mustard seen faith, with prayer and fasting, means that no mountain in our way is too big for God.