Faith That Can Move Mountains

In the Indiana Jones movie, The Quest for The Holy Grail, Indy finds himself at the precipice of a bottomless chasm. On the other side of the abyss stands the sacred temple in which the cup of Christ awaits him. Indy has searched the entire world for the Holy Grail, defied all kinds rats, skeletons and villains, nearly lost his father, and risked death many times to come to this point. Now he is so close and yet so far. Standing alone, looking down into this endless gorge, he remembers the instruction that was foretold to help him when he reached this point in his journey: faith. Indy takes a deep breath and steps out over the chasm. He sees nothing to stand on, but he decides to follow the advice to trust. As soon as he leans out over the abyss, a bridge appears and he finds himself fully supported on a solid mass. The entire chasm, which seemed quite impossible to mortal eyes, was but a test of faith. The bridge was there all along, but it could only be seen by those who stepped onto it. Faith is the vision of things unseen. Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible. I wonder how many bridges we have not crossed because we couldn't see them? Read the words of Jesus:

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).

Perhaps it’s a stubborn habit that you have fought against all of your life; faith can move that mountain. Or, maybe it’s some challenge you simply cannot seem to overcome in life; faith can move that mountain also. Faith in Jesus does not mean that the challenge or trial will be removed, as much as it means God will show us the bridge to walk across to the other side.

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, “Sir, I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls.” Now, the tightrope walker wrote back, “Sir, although I’ve never been to America and seen the Falls, I’d love to come.” Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. The tightrope walker was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls—blindfolded! And he makes it across easily. The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, “Well, sir, now do you believe I can do it?” “Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it.” “No,” said the tightrope walker, “do you really believe I can do it?” “Well of course I do, you just did it.” “No, no, no,” he said, “do you believe I can do it?” “Yes,” said the promoter, “I believe you can do it.” “Good,” said the tightrope walker, “then you get in the wheelbarrow.”

The kind of faith that moves mountains is that which causes us to get into the wheelbarrow that Christ is pushing. It is resting in the knowledge that our relationship with Him cannot be broken regardless of what happens! We are secure in Him forever. Come on… let’s move some mountains!