In Mark 11:22-24 Jesus said to His disciples, "Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." That seems relatively easy to do, yet for countless Christians the exercise of faith is quite the struggle.
How much faith does it take to believe that God will do for us the things He has promised in His Word? It is not unusual to hear people talk about not having enough faith, neither is it unusual to others praying for increased faith. In the case of the latter, I have often wondered: if they can activate their faith to believe for increased faith, why not use the faith they already have to believe that the things they have asked for they will receive? In Luke 17:5 we see the disciples having the same problem. As Jesus taught them about forgiveness they said unto Him, "Increase our faith", to which Jesus replied, "If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you" (v.6).
Commentator Albert Barnes tells us, "The seeds of this tree were remarkably small, so that they, with the great size of the plant, were an apt illustration of the ... nature of faith." As the large sycamine tree came from the small mustard seed, so the exercise of our faith, though it seems small, can accomplish great things. The good news is that every believer has a deposit of faith on the inside. Paul reminds us, "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Romans 12:3), and as we note Jesus' response to the disciples request for more faith, we realize that all we need to do is to exercise the amount we already have.
We can rest assured that we do not need a trailer load of faith to believe God will do as He promise. It is true that the more we exercise faith the "easier" it becomes to believe, but we have to start somewhere. What better place to start than with what we have been given? Remember, no matter how big the challenges in front of you, ALL things are possible to those who believe (Mark 9:23). I really like the "all things"; how about you?
