Small Faith, Big Results

The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.”  The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you! ~ Luke 17:5-6

Have you ever seen a mustard seed? The mustard seed is one of the smallest of all seeds. During our recent Women's Retreat, we gave each woman a mustard seed to symbolize the faith required to bring their "Plan of Victory" to fruition. The mustard seed is so small that you can hardly even see it. Some of them placed them in bags and attached them inside their vision books. Some people wear a necklace that has one of these tiny mustard seeds inside of a piece of glass. They wear this necklace as a symbol of their faith in God. Do you know why the mustard seed is considered a symbol of faith?

The mustard seed symbolized that when it comes to faith you don’t need very much, size has nothing to do with how much that can be accomplished. Have you in your entire life ever witnessed someone telling a mulberry tree to uproot itself and throw itself into the sea, and it obeyed? I haven’t and if you have please let me know because I want to hear that story! Jesus was not suggesting that you and I go around trying to move trees just to prove that we have faith. You see, the size of faith Jesus is talking about here is microscopic, yet with it the impossible can be done. 
 
The disciples asked for more faith and Jesus literally told them they had enough. Why did they want more? To meet the challenges of God's demands, but Jesus knew that it was not quantity they needed but quality. They did not need an increase of faith that would bring some reward, fame or status following its use, but a faith that is small that produces great results and those results don't depend on us, they depend on God. WIth him, the impossible can be done with the smallest measure of faith.