If Ye Have Faith As A Grain Of Mustard Seed

Matthew 17:19-20, “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Jesus told the disciples that the reason why they could cast the demon out of the child was because of their lack of faith. Then the Lord said that if they had even the tiniest degree of faith, God would move mountains for them. Do you know what that means? It means that the disciples didn't have any faith at all. They didn't even pray in the matter.

One of my favorite truths in the inspired Word of God is found in Acts 12. In versus 1 and 2 we read that wicked Herod had already murdered the Apostle James, cutting his head off like John the Baptist. In Acts 12:3-15 we read that when Herod saw how glad the wicked Jews were to see James executed, he decided to murder the Apostle Peter too. So, the Christians began to pray earnestly to God for Peter to be delivered from certain death.

God did answer their prayer and sent angels to rescue Peter. While they were singing hymns on death row, the chains and shackles fell off and the prison doors swung open from a great earthquake. Peter had been delivered from prison and imminent death, by the Lord in answer to the prayers of the saints!!!

Now carefully read the disturbing response of the saints, were when they learned that Peter had been rescued from prison and was knocking at their front door...

Acts 12:13-15, “And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.”

They said, “You're crazy Rhoda!” While they were in the very act of praying, and learned that God had answered their prayers, they had so little faith in God that they were in total disbelief and denial when He answered them. This is so encouraging!!! It means that even when we doubt God, He may still answer our prayers simply because we had enough faith to pray and ask Him for something. “Prayer is asking,” as Evangelist John R. Rice (1895-1980) used to often say. They prayed and God answered.

I don't know about you friend, but that encourages me to keep praying to God about everything. Who knows if the Lord will answer. I admit that most of my prayers throughout my Christian life have gone unanswered. I have been praying for God to find me a wife for over 15 years, but the Lord for whatever good reason hasn't answered that prayer. I trust the Lord. God is good and everything that He does is right. I may die a lonely man but, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalms 23:1).

In the Old Testament, when King Nebuchadnezzar erected a Golden Obelisk 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide (the same occultic ratio as The Washington Monument), Meshack, Shadrach and Abednego all courageously refused to bow down to worship the wicked king's golden image.

Daniel 3:16-18, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

I absolutely love those three words, “But if now.” They had enough faith to proclaim that their true and living God would deliver them from being thrown alive into the fiery furnace, BUT IF NOT, they said that at least everyone would know they had refused to worship a false god, an idol. Thankfully, God did deliver them!

The ungodly king had ordered his soldiers to turn up the intensity of the furnace seven times hotter. In fact, the Bible says it was so hot, that the soldiers who cast the three Hebrew young men into the furnace were consumed by fire themselves and died. Yet, not a hair on their head was cinched, nor did they have any smell of smoke or being burned when they exited the furnace. The Bible says that the kind didn't see three, but four men in the fire, and the fourth was like unto the Son of God. The lesson dear reader is simply that when God's children are going through the fire, Jesus is in the fire with us, faithfully standing right by our side.

What precious Bible truths! Dear friend, have faith in God in 2024!