Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

  Matthew 14-20 "At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, "Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him." Jesus said, "You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well. Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?" "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." NLT

      Lord, You have shown me SO much from this section of Scripture.  A couple of years ago, at a Leadership Appreciation dinner, I was presented with a small vial of mustard seeds with this last part of verse 20 written on the outside.  I took it to my office as a sweet reminder of that evening.  As You know, You send students at Liberty University to our Student Advocate Office for assistance in many areas: relational, monetary, and academic.  You prompted me to start giving a seed taped onto my business card to each one who comes to me and have them read this verse as encouragement.  You have caused that tiny seed to have a huge ministry within the hearts of those students, and sometimes the parents too.
      I know that in the context, You were talking about being able to cast out a demon, but we have those "demons" in our lives that we have invited in to plague us too.  They are: fear, mistrust, selfishness, discontent, unbelief, anger, and pride.  We invite them when we are not reading, studying, heeding and obeying Your Word on a daily basis, and do not take the fact that we have been crucified with You seriously.  We excuse our sin and most generally blame them on someone else or our circumstances.
      This tiny seed and reading this verse gives hope and encouragement to us   The seed is very tiny...smaller than a bee bee, smaller than a piece of sea salt.  We need only have that much faith and we can rid ourselves of the beasts that plague us through confession and repentance, and nothing (that You want) will be impossible for us.  I tell the students that You send to me, that they could have seen any one of the advocates, but You sent them to me that day because You wanted them to see the seed and read the verse as Your reminder to them.  I tell them that You did not say, "Sometimes this is true, sometimes not."   You did not say , "Some things will be impossible for you."  If they are doing what You called them to do, walking very closely with You, and do not have a unconfessed sin list, then this is true...always!
      A couple of weeks ago, one of the students You had brought to me earlier came to my office and said, "Miss Timi, I need another mustard seed."  Because I tape them to my business card, I asked him if he had put his in the wash.  He told me that he had not, but had taken the seed off the card and had planted it in a pot in his dorm room and it was growing.  He said he was going to Afghanistan in September and did not want to go without a mustard seed as a reminder.
     I took his idea and planted two seeds in a little pot in my office.  I was amazed at how little time it took for them to sprout and start to grow.  Within a week there were little shoots, and within two, there were plants about 2 inches tall.  You showed me why You chose the mustard seed as an object lesson.  Those two little plants have brought more than beauty to my office.  They have become as much of a reminder  of Your faithfulness to me and the students as the seeds.
      This past week, I had some time off to spend with my son Tom and family.  I forgot to ask someone to water my plants while I was gone, and did not leave the lamp on that is beside my little pot.  When I arrived in my office yesterday, there were two very droopy mustard plants hanging over the sides of the pot.  They were still alive, but had little life left in them.  I watered the pot and turned the lamp on, and by the end of the day, the plants were perking up.  They were not straight and tall as they had been, but were alive.
      Lord, You spoke to my heart through those tiny plants.  You showed me that If I have even tiny faith and it is planted into the fertile soil of my heart and I keep it watered and in the light, it will grow.  But, if I neglect it by not watering it with Your Living Water EVERY day or if it is not in Your nice bright light it will start to die too.
      Lord, that has been as much a lesson to me as to the students and some staff.  Thank You, Lord, for Your Word and how it ministers to me each day.