How big should our faith have to be in order to be effective enough to see results? Is faith quantifiable in the sense that we can take it all together and sum it up and see if we have enough of it to see breakthroughs come to pass?
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus teaches us, "...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."
To give context to the scripture, Jesus' disciples have just failed at casting out a demon, and their Teacher has to come and clean up their act. Confused, the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn't do it themselves. Jesus then gives this all too popular response -- the mustard seed-sized faith.
Whether you consider yourself to be a man or woman of faith, there was most likely a time or there might still be a time that you struggle with the thought of not having enough to see miracles, the healing work of God in people's lives or breakthroughs to happen. We pray simple prayers over ours or others' lives, while at the back of our heads we start thinking, "Wqfhat if this doesn't work because I don't have enough faith?"
Never have we been more wrong in our thinking.
Size doesn't matter
When Jesus compares the size of faith required to see results to a grain of mustard seed, He isn't giving us an actual measurement but rather a figurative comparison. Of all the grains and seeds in Near East culture, the Mustard Seed had to be one of the smallest.
Moreover, Jesus emphasizes the irrelevance of the size of our faiths by saying that faith just as small as that would be strong enough to cast a mountain into the sea. But see, even in this explanation, we can still get things wrong. God isn't teaching us that the size of our faith matters, because the truth is: it doesn't matter at all.
Breakthroughs and miracles are never dependent on the size of our faith because it has nothing to do with us!
God's faithfulness, not ours
The issue of answered and effective prayers has never been about the size of our faith but the size of our God. You can have the most faith, but if it's toward yourself, a doctrine or belief system, nothing's going to happen. But you can have the smallest and most minute faith possible but if it's towards the completeness of Christ and His finished work, you might as well consider those mountain ranges gone.
To put it more plainly, Jesus says it this way: "It has nothing to do with you and your faith, but it has everything to do with My faithfulness." And just how faithful is Jesus? He is faithful beyond compare. Through His faith, He has not only healed our bodies but also healed our souls. He has not only restored earthly riches but also spiritual blessings. He has not only extended mortal life but also gave eternal life.
Our trust lies not in the amount of faith we have. If that's our focus, we miss the point. Our trust lies in the object of our faith, not the methodology of it.
