Faith as small as a mustard seed. We hear this often in our Christian walk. This is because while the seed of mustard is so small, it grows to be one of the strongest trees in the garden. But also, the mustard seed has been used since ancient biblical times medicinally. Besides lowering blood pressure and restoring disrupted sleep patterns it is widely know for its abilities to remove pain and prevent cancers. Reflect on that for a moment.
That is the essence of faith is it not? Faith moves mountains because it removes the areas in our lives that cause us great pain. Cancer is a disease that spreads wildly if left unchecked and ravages the body. Likewise the lack of faith spreads wildly and ravages the spirit if left unchecked. Cancer cells invade healthy cells like a lack of faith in one area of our life can start to affect our faith in other areas. But true faith, is not an issue of size but of sincerity. Sincere faith, like the mustard seed, eases the pain in our life and prevents the development of any cancers to our spirit. Sincere faith is boundless:
Then Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, "May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it." -- Matthew 21: 21-22 (NLT)
And that brings us to the last lesson from the key verses. Once we have overcome our faltering faith it is imperative that we do not return to the root causes of that problem:
Jesus sent him away, saying, "Don't go back into the village on your way home." -- Mark 8: 26 (NLT)
We are all pilgrims and sojourners in this world. We are all on our way home to be with the Lord forever. Whenever God gives us a victory over faltering faith He is imploring us to never return to the village He found our faith struggling in. Sometimes we can be creatures of such habit and often it is bad habits. If there is an area our faith is blinded in, or even where it might become blurry we cannot return to that village. We cannot return to the practices that contribute to that erosion of faith. God delivers us all the time but the sad thing is that often after the deliverance we walk right back into the same habits and surround ourselves with the same people that were at the center of the lack of faith to begin with.
There are many reasons why we fail sometimes in our faith. There are many reasons why we need to pray for the Lord to help our unbelief amidst the beliefs we do not struggle with. God understands these things beloved. We are the furthest thing from perfect. Maybe we have mustard seed faith when it comes to our kids, our career, and our ministries. But maybe the nature of our relationship or lack thereof is like a cancer in our spirit, slowly eroding our faith. Maybe we have mountain moving faith when it comes to our relationships -- always trusting God; but we are in so much pain about our past that we cannot seem to trust God in faith to take it all away. Whatever the area is that you find yourself struggling in today remember that we need to first examine where we are in that issue. What village do we find ourselves in and remove ourselves from the forces that feed that unbelief. Secondly, remember that deliverance is sometimes a process that requires our diligence and steadfastness. Lastly, that once we are delivered we should avoid returning to the things that contributed to the lack of faith to begin with. We are not super-spiritual -- none of us. We all struggle but we all can overcome.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- March 10, 2012
