This morning I was reading in the book of Matthew chapter 21 and verse 21 really stopped me in my tracks.
“I tell you this: if you have faith and do not doubt, then you will be able to wither a fig tree with one glance. You will be able to tell mountains to throw themselves into the ocean, and they will obey.“ (The Voice)
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had faith like this…the kind of faith that would allow me the power to tell a mountain to throw itself into the ocean. I saw the Rocky Mountains in Colorado once. As I think of them now I can’t help but wonder exactly how strong my faith would have to be, to be able to tell those mountains to move, and they actually do so. If we thought about it enough this verse might end up being discouraging. Like Jesus put this impossible scenario out there for us…a side of faith we will never reach.
But what if I’m looking at it wrong? What if instead of Jesus presenting an impossible scenario, He’s instead going a step further and challenging my faith…our faith…the world’s faith. What if he’s trying to motivate us to dig deeper into Him and experience a life truly fueled by faith?
Some say that faith is the evidence of things unseen…but what if the truth is, we’d see everything…even everything unseen…if we pushed doubt aside and refused to let our faith recede. What if the things of God around us we’re not seeing or not experiencing, have been and really are all around us all the time….they’re just camouflaged by our doubt.
What if Jesus is challenging us not to move a mountain…but to instead live a life of faith that’s capable of reaching that very point? How sweet would our lives be if we were intentional and chose to flee from our doubts, and run fully into a life of faith?
Maybe it’s time we all go stand in front of a mountain and find out.
