I’ve been thinking about faith recently. As I was considering this subject, Matthew 17:20 and stood out to me. “He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’”

While pondering that verse I started wondering about the size of a grain of mustard seed compared to a mountain. A grain of mustard seed is really small. One grain is 1 or 2 millimeters in size. That’s tiny. A mountain, on the other hand, is huge. I took a look at one mountain in Israel, Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is in the Galilee so Jesus’ disciples would have been familiar with it. Mount Hermon is 1,804 meters higher than the land around it and 2, 814 meters above sea level.

So, how do they compare? For the sake of this exercise we’ll say a mustard seed is 1.5 millimeters. There are 1,000 millimeters in a meter. If you stacked mustard seeds on top of each other starting from the base of Mount Hermon it would take 1,202,666.67 mustard seeds to reach the height of Mount Hermon. If you laid those on a straight line on the ground they would go for 1972.9 yards, which is equivalent to 6.5 football fields. That’s a lot of mustard seeds. Do you get the idea that a mustard seed is very, very, very, very, very, very small compared to a mountain?

A mustard seed is miniscule compared to a mountain, yet it only takes that amount of faith to move mountains. Most of us do not have the faith equal to one mustard seed. Brothers and sisters, we are pathetic. Look at who God is. Look at what Jesus did for us. Look at the power of the Holy Spirit in us. We should have faith to move hundreds of mountains, and yet we struggle to have faith that God will provide us the money to live each day, that He will protect our loved ones, ultimately, we struggle to believe He is in control. The disciples prayed that Jesus would increase their faith. That should be the prayer of every Christian in the world.

One other verse having to do with faith and mountains stood out to me. That verse is Matthew 21:21-22. “And Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Brothers and sisters, I am coming to believe that often our problem is not that we do not have enough faith but that we do not have any faith. Jesus said, “if you have faith and do not doubt,” Doubt and faith cannot coexist. We must have faith in God and not doubt His word, not doubt His power, not doubt anything. A mustard seed is very little, that amount of faith has no extra room for doubt. It does not fit, so throw it out!

Just think what could be done if ten Christians were dedicated to something, if they had faith like a grain of mustard seed, just a tiny bit, but no doubt. Why, they could move ten mountains. Think how that would magnify if one hundred Christians had that must faith or one church. What could one church full of mustard seed Christians, but no doubt, do? How about one town of churches, or one state, or one country? If Christians had this kind of faith, the world would have to stop and stand in awe of God.

But we doubt. We do not have faith. We do not trust God. We are to concerned with the material things of life. Brothers and sisters, this is wrong! God promises to take care of all our needs when we are seeking His kingdom. Why can’t we let Him?

Why can’t we move mountains and make the world stop and stare? Because we doubt and have even less faith than a mustard seed amount.

I would like to challenge you to have mustard seed faith. Stop doubting God, start trusting Him. Stop worrying about the things of this world and start worrying about the things of God and the world to come. Stop watching the world’s entertainment and start spending time with the Master, asking Him to increase your faith.

Brothers and sisters, remember, there is no room for doubt in a mustard seed amount of faith. Go move mountains!