Mustard seed faith

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. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. – Matthew 17.20.21

One of my many memories of my dear mother is a pendant she had on a necklace. It was tear shape. It was tear shaped and held a small seed encased in what was probable plastic. It was unusual to say the least, certainly nothing spectacular or even pretty. It was just a seed.

Eventually I got curious enough to ask her about it. It was probably something like ‘Mom, why do you wear a necklace that is just a seed?’

I don’t remember where she got the necklace. It seems like it was a Sunday School prize. Anyway, she told me that it was a mustard seed. Now I was even more confused. ‘Why a mustard seed?’

So Mom told me the story of this passage. The mustard seed necklace was to remind her of the power of just a smidgen of faith. Jesus often talked about ‘great faith’ it is true, but here He chose to talk about what just a little faith could do. Jesus said that even the faith of a mustard seed mountain moving faith. Nothing is impossible.

Of course there is a condition. In other places we read that we get what we ask for when we pray with right hearts in the will of God, but that’s a whole nother discussion.

God blesses even our inkling of faith. That’s why we can pray ‘Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.’

Let God build on the faith we have, all it takes is that marvellous little mustard seed.