Faith Can Move A Mountain

I want to give up
Faith says keep going, God is with you.
I want to give in
Faith says surrender, God is bigger
I don't have the strength
Faith says, God is my strength

I was struck with the fact in my quiet time that the disciples tried to cast out the lunatic in the text of Matthew chapter 17 verses 14-21 and could not. They privately came to Jesus with a question saying, "Why could we not cast it out?" And Jesus said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you."

This is a familiar passage and we all love to hold onto the phrase our faith can move a mountain. But because I am a person of 'how' and like to find out what that looks like in my life, I found it very interesting that Jesus went on to further say, "this one does not come out except by prayer and fasting."

I believe Jesus gave us the key to how our faith can move mountains, how even a little bit of faith, as tiny as a mustard seed can do impossible things, big things, move impossible mountains out of our way so we can move forward. But not on our own strength. Through depending on Him through prayer. The mountain is big, it's in your way, you feel like it's impossible to move. Just like the disciples we find ourselves coming privately to Jesus asking, "why couldn't we do _________?" We try so hard to move that mountain but we can't on our own strength. We're exhausted, worn out, frustrated, discouraged and even perplexed because we thought we did everything spiritually 'right.' But in the passage, there is no mention that the disciples believed they could heal the man nor that they prayed and fasted to heal him.That's what Jesus says to them.

I wonder instead of just talking the talk like we do about faith, that we first believed God could move our mountain, and then committed ourselves to prayer and fasting what would happen? I believe our faith would grow stronger and our concept of God would enlarge. Why do we overlook prayer in our lives like we do especially during those mountainous times in our life? Mountains can be moved but not on our own strength.

If you are standing at the bottom of your mountain today, don't try to climb up on your own. Give it to God and pray. Trust His promises and commit wholeheartedly He will answer.

Have a happy Friday!