“I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”
Matthew 17:20 (RSV)
The most remarkable event since creation, is the moment that God became incarnated as a human man. I can imagine how surprised Mary was when she heard and processed the news that she was to be the mother of God’s son. In that unexpected moment, there was no time for Mary to feel the full weight of what the angel just announced to her, but she believed.
Before Gabriel departed, he said to her, “For nothing will be impossible for God”and Mary responded, “Let it be done according to your word.
(Luke 1:37)
I can see in this scene, that Mary’s faith was stronger than her feelings, since feelings of fear and doubt could have rose up, and caused her to hesitate before consenting to the role of becoming the mother of the Messiah.
The fear of being ridiculed as an unwed mother, could have held her back. Feelings of doubt about what the future would entail, could have delayed her will to consent, but she invested her faith in the God who can do the impossible, instead of relying on her feelings, fears or doubts. With no guarantees about how it would all pan out, Mary was 100% in. She was in because of her faith, over her feelings.
Jesus said that what is humanly impossible, is possible with God. An exhausted and desperate father came to Him one day, asking for the healing of his possessed son. That father wasn’t feeling 100% hopeful, which was evident by his feeble question, “If you can do anything…”
He only had a tiny bit of faith, but Jesus told him everything is possible to one who has faith. (Mark 9:22-23)
It doesn’t matter how much faith we have, because only a little faith permits God to do what is humanly impossible. That father came to the right person with a little faith, and not much enthusiasm, but it was enough for Jesus to heal his son.
Jesus taught that a little bit of faith goes a long way. If we combine all the scriptures on this topic, it would compose a sentence that says that all things are possible, nothing is impossible, and nothing is too difficult for God.
I say a resounding Amen to that sentence, but I still don’t wake up each morning ‘feeling’ the faith to believe for the seemingly impossible situations in my life. I need to believe with faith apart from my feelings. Scripture confirms the fact that God wants us to believe, even with a mustard seed size of faith.
Jesus said anything and everything is possible with God. He said it many times and in many ways. It was said through the angel Gabriel, through the Old Testament prophets and through Jesus Himself, and we believe it, because He said it.
Feelings can be deceiving as well as misleading. Fear is a human feeling which is why the words ‘Fear not’ appear about 100 times in the Bible. Jesus told us to have faith for the impossible, because a mustard seed of faith is more effective than all our feelings.
Faith is the conviction of things not seen. If God said it, even though we don’t see it, we believe it.
Lord, help us to trust in you with even our smallest bit of faith, knowing you are God, who makes all things possible. Amen
