He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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 to you." Matthew 11:20
I have found that the biggest mountains are right in the middle of my heart. Exchanging my choices, desires, and goals for His, no matter how small a sacrifice, is a mountain moving challenge every day. But every smallest obedience we take is a step of faith. And Jesus tells us in today’s verse that even the tiniest mustard seed step, will release the power of God to cast our biggest mountains into the sea!
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1 NIV
When we lived in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania we had two Elkhounds: named Sonya and Thunder. Though they were sisters from the same litter, and looked alike, their personalities were completely different. Thunder loved nothing better than to sit with me and let her ears be scratched, but Sonya was always looking for a chance to escape and would usually entice Thunder to run after her. Late one snowy Winter night, I cracked the front door open to see how much had fallen, when Sonya suddenly shot out between me and the door, with Thunder close behind. “Sonya! Thunder! Come back!” I shouted after them, but rather than turning or even slowing down, they hurried off into the darkness. As Elkhounds I knew they weren’t in any danger from the cold, and since they were ignoring me, I simply shrugged my shoulders, closed the door, flicked off the light and went to bed. In the morning you never saw such a meek couple of puppy-dogs, curled up by our doorway and eager to be let back in.
Sometimes our walk with God looks like that night on the mountain. God loves us to come sit close to Him. He wants nothing more than to care for us and keep us safe in His presence. In today’s verse, He calls to us, “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.” But sometimes our heart longs to run, and when we do God doesn’t chase after us. We think we are getting away with something, but in reality, we are trading a safe warm home for a night in a snowstorm of doubts, fears and false promises. How amazingly good it is that God doesn’t lock His door and vow to never speak to us again. Instead, when we limp home with our feet frozen from the cold, and huddle up outside His door, He calls us again, but this time He says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest!” Can you hear Him calling? Are you ready to listen to His voice? The moment our heart says, “Yes” we will discover a rest that He paid for on Calvary and the home that He has prepared for us to stay in forever!
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-31 NIV
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
Faith can be like a jigsaw puzzle. If you are like me, there are some days when it feels like we are trying to put together a puzzle, which not only has no picture on the box, it also seems to be missing several pieces. We get depressed or angry, and wonder why everyone around us appears to be doing fine with their puzzles, while we are only able to piece together a few of the edge pieces. But our stressed-out attitude has the situation entirely backwards. God isn’t asking us to put together a 5,000-piece puzzle, because that isn’t our job. The reality is that we are God’s puzzle, and He sees the complete picture and is putting everything together perfectly according to His plan. We don’t need to see the picture on the box: He does! We aren’t missing any pieces, we are the missing piece, and our only job is to take the next step He is calling us to take. His call challenges us to either believe and trust Him, or to rely on and trust in what everybody else says. No one can take that step for us. We have to do it with our own faith. Obedience can be scary, dangerous and difficult, but it will be worth it all! Jesus is everything and the only thing we will ever need in every situation, in every place, and every single day! Faith asks the ultimate question: “Will I trust Him today with what He asks me to do!”
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