Just a Mustard Seed's Worth

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He 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.” (Matthew 17:14-20 ESV).

A lot of people worry about making decisions. Even when they know the worst possible outcome of their options, they still fret about making a decision. That results in procrastination, which is a time killer and an opportunity buster. Many people miss the opportunities presented to them in life simply because they are paralyzed from their worry and wait until its too late. Often I have heard the phrase, “If you snooze, you loose.” There is some truth to that old, common proverb.

I remember the story about a young man in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had a college internship at the local newspaper. One of assignments had been to interview two young entrepreneurs who’d started a new business. The intern spent the better part of a day with these two enterprising businessmen, asking lots of questions about how they operated their little cleaning products company. Before he went away, they offered him the opportunity to join them on the ground floor of their new business. Well, he decided that he couldn’t afford to spend his life selling soap. After all, he was a college graduate! He had studied for a career in journalism, not business. I don’t know where the young intern is today, however I do know where the two young businessmen are. Their names are Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. Their little soap company is called the Amway Corporation today. DeVos later said, “The only thing that stand between a man and what he wants from life is often the will to try it, and the faith to believe that it’s possible.

How often have you said, “I could have…” or “I should have…”? You don’t have to ever say it again. Position yourself to take action. Don’t wait for a better time or a more favorable situation. Make a decision based on your faith in God for your life and do it!

Longfellow wrote, “Whenever two ways lie before us, one easy and the other hard, one which requires no exertion while the other calls for resolution and endurance, happy is the person who chooses the mountain path and scorns the thought of resting in the valley.” What mountain of difficulty do you have before you today? Jesus said, “With God nothing is impossible.” Just a little faith moves those mountains. Pray today for courage, not faith. Most of us don’t need more faith. We need courage to use the faith we already possess!