April 5, 2021
A Mustard Seed
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 be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you! (Luke 17:5-6 NLT)
The parable of the mustard seed is another illustration Jesus used, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)The disciples came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed or a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree which has very strong roots, ‘be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and if the request is in agreement with the will of God it would have obeyed you. (Luke 17:5-6) Faith is the ability to trust the Father confidently and in His power. Faith has substance, it is the substance of things you hope, and it has evidence – the manifestation of something you have not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Without faith, you cannot please God. (Hebrews 11:6) Faith calls those things that are not as though they were.
Abraham had the God kind of faith – God said it, and he believed it, and that settled it! He is called the “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do; raise the dead to life, with a Word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not based on what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so, he was made Father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!” (Romans 4:17-18) Abraham believed God! Do you believe God will do what He has promised you?
