Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | I tell you the truth, 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.   Matthew 17:20- 21

What keeps the world running?  Is it the Internet, markets or governments that print money as needed?  It’s definitely not politicians!  No, the reality is that these all threaten to bring the world to its knees.   In one word, it is faith!  You have faith that another nation will keep its alliances and treaties, faith in your coworkers and faith in your husband or wife that he or she will live up to the promises you made to each other.

Faith is not wishful thinking or hoping.  It is simply taking someone, anyone, at his word and then acting on it.  Some have suggested that there are many kinds of faith, but when you stop and think about it, there’s only one kind of faith:  the kind that makes you trust something enough to act on it.

Faith operates on many levels.  You have faith in your car—that it will start when you turn the key or push a button and take you where you want.  You have faith in the financial system when you swipe your credit card at the market.  When you sit down at the end of the day, you have faith that your favorite video service will stream a show of your choice your way.

When it comes to the spiritual realm, it takes the same kind of faith to live day by day, not a different kind.  Faith in the realm of the spiritual is taking God at His Word, and then acting on it.  It is accepting at face value what He tells you about yourself, about His love for you, about your relationships with people, and about your future destiny.  Some people believe that they must have a huge amount of faith in God in order for Him to do anything for them.  But, they know they do not have great faith.  This isn’t true, though.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, 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” (Matthew 17:20-21).

Have you ever seen a mustard seed?  It is small, a fraction of the size of the little fingernail on the hand of a baby.  It is not great faith you need half as much as small faith in a great God.  A very tiny mustard seed grows into a plant so tall that it towers overhead.  When we think of people of great faith, we often think of Abraham, David and Moses in the Old Testament; Peter and Paul in the New.  But look carefully at their lives and you will discover that Moses was a murderer; David, an adulterer; Abraham, a deceiver.  Paul was an accomplice to murder— the murder of Stephen, and Peter denied his Lord.

No, we have to realize that they were as human as you and I are.  They sinned, but yet God used them.  It was not that they had such great faith; it was that they discovered how great a God rules our world.  Actually, they had small faith in a great God.

When you stop and think about it, faith is no better than the object of your faith.  Put your faith in yourself, and you are in for a disappointment.  Put your faith in others and you may be let down but put your faith in God and His promises and you will never be disappointed.  God has the power to keep His Word; to meet your need; to answer your prayer.  He promises the kind of peace that no psychiatrist can prescribe.  He offers forgiveness and cleansing through our trust in Him.

Faith is your response to God’s Word.  It is acting like you believe what He said is true.  What is the need that confronts you right now?  Whatever it is, there is a solution.  God can give you the guidance you need.  Faith is your part.  Leave the rest to Him.

Resource reading: Romans 10:14-17