Wouldn’t you love to have the kind of faith that moves God to answer your prayers? Yeah, and so do I. Christ’s disciples wanted that as well. One day Jesus found out that they had been asking God to deliver a boy who was being controlled by a demon. They had failed miserably.
After Jesus stepped in and immediately cured the boy, His disciples asked Him why they had not been successful. Jesus looked at the disciples, and told them that their problem was, “the littleness of your faith” (Matthew 17:20). The next words from Jesus must have shocked them. They probably expected Him to say that what they needed was GREAT faith. Instead, Jesus said that all they needed was “faith the size of a mustard seed.”
Jesus must have been referring to the black mustard plant that grew wild on the shores of Lake Galilee. It was an herb that was used to give flavor to meats and vegetables. The seeds of this plant were tiny, 1 mm or less, and yet the plant often grew to be 6 to 8 feet tall. Why did Jesus use that tiny seed to picture the amount of faith that God required?
Jesus was showing them, I believe, that instead of looking for GREAT faith, they needed to make sure that their faith was planted in the RIGHT PLACE. If a tiny mustard seed was planted in the right place it, would grow strong all on its own. When our faith is planted in the right place, it will do the same.
How does knowing that truth help us? Here is the key: Before we will ever have great faith, we must first put what little faith we have in a great place. The place we must put our faith is in a PERSON. That person is the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, our faith will grow strong when it is placed in the rich soil of knowing Jesus.
Jesus is much more than just a good person from long ago who helped people. Here is an alphabetical list of descriptions of Jesus that I found in the Bible.
Jesus is:
The Almighty God, The Altogether Lovely One
My Beloved, The Bread of Life, My Brother
The Chief Corner Stone, My Counselor, My Creator
My Deliverer
The Everlasting God
The Father of Lights, Faithful, My Friend
My Glorious Lord, The Good Master
My High Priest, The Hope of Glory, My Helper, Holy
The I Am, Immanuel
The Judge, Just, My Joy
The King of Kings
The Lamb of God, My Life, My Light, The Lord of Glory
My Master, The Mighty God, The Man of Sorrows
Near, The Name above all Names
The Only Wise God
The Prince of Peace, Pure, Patient, My Provider
The Quencher of Thirst, The Quickening Spirit
The Resurrection, My Rock, The Ruler of All
My Shepherd, My Savior, My Sovereign, My Song
The True Vine, The Truth
The Unspeakable Gift, My Understanding
The Victory, The Vine
The Way, Wonderful, Wise
X-Excellent
My Yearning
The Zeal of God, Zion’s King
If you know Christ, I hope this list will help your faith grow as you meditate and review all that He is. If you do not know Him, begin reading the Bible and you will discover that everything in my list is true about Jesus. These descriptions of Jesus give us a lot of rich soil where our tiny seed of faith can grow strong. Great faith comes from a great Savior when we surrender our lives to the One who was willing to die in our place and pay the penalty our sin deserves.
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