There are times we wait for courage, but it never really comes. Sometimes we wait for peace, or pure knowledge, or steadfast trust, but we lack the capacity with our mind and heart to accept it. We’re hoping for certainty while stand in fear, our knees knocking, teeth chattering, stress pumping through our veins.
There’s a verse that comes from Matthew 17:20, “Truly I tell you, 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.”
Faith. Faith is what it comes down to, faith is what we truly lack. Nothing will be impossible when we have faith.
Consider it this way: if we are provided with courage without faith, we have no cause to be courageous. If we are given trust without faith, what are we trusting in?
It’s been striking me lately that I have a tendency to lack in faith, especially in the small things. I remember planning my Fall 2015 class schedule last week and feeling terrified that I would not have the classes I required to graduate on time. But now, I feel ridiculous. I was able to register today and I received all of my first-choice classes. Last week I did not have any trust because I did not have any faith.
Faith the size of a mustard seed, the verse says. I’ve been meditating on it for the past week. I look at my life, and figuratively, I’ve seen mountains move. I’ve overcome obstacles and broken down walls to walk into the fullness of living in Christ. He has proven to me that nothing is impossible through Him. But it’s striking me now: What if the verse is literal? I’ve never seen a real mountain move. They’re huge.
A mustard seed is so small. What if my faith is so much smaller than even the size of a mustard seed? What if the faith that I see as “so large” in this world is smaller than the 1-2mm diameter of the mustard seed?
There’s another verse in Luke that I love, it comes from chapter 17, verse six: “He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.“
I have yet to see a tree be uprooted and planted in the sea, but there’s a tree at Holland State Park that I’d really like to try this out on.
When I scrambled in a search for trust, courage, and peace, and my search was to no avail, faith is the part I was missing. I wanted to be sure of myself, steadfast and certain, before I moved I ahead. It’s so much easier to be fully prepared. But I know now that life doesn’t work that way. It never has, and it never really will. That’s not the life God calls into, either. He qualifies the unqualified as we seek His kingdom and He protects and rejoices with those who put their faith in Him. We must project our heart’s desires ahead of us in faith, knowing He has already gone before us, to gain the courage and capacity to trust without knowing when it will be a reality.
We don’t have to scramble or search for these things, we need only to have faith in our Father.
Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt by faith, said it well, and I am hopeful it will be an encouragement to you today:
“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today… The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14).
What area of your life is pushing you to have faith? Tweet at me @hopesophie17. Or if you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at sophie.guetzko@hope.edu.