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How much faith is needed to move mountains? Is it necessary to “increase” our faith to do so?
As far as the end result goes, faith is faith no matter how much or how little you have. In that regard, to say that one person has less faith than another is like saying that one woman is less pregnant than another. That is, just as a woman is either pregnant or she isn’t, a person either has faith or the don’t. The true variance lies in the degree you can exclude the doubts of your faith. It’s like pure gold being pure gold whether it is a nugget or a boulder, but the true variance is the degree to which you remove the rocks and minerals that have clung to it when you brought it up.
So faith has no measure. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you have faith. Luke 17:5-6 says, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like fa grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’”
Pure faith in whatever degree will uproot mulberry trees and move mountains. The catch is, your faith must be pure. If you have any degree of doubt, even to have doubt as small as a grain of mustard seed, it will hinder whatever faith you have. Jesus in Matthew 21:21 says, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.” In actuality, as nobody but Jesus is perfect, everyone has some degree of doubt to go along with their faith. If that weren’t the case, then you might walk along a busy street and see mountains and mulberry bushes flying by overhead, on their way to the sea!
But as we walk in the midst of earthly evils, the temptations arising thereof will cause us to have doubts about our faith in at least one time or another. That does not mean we should not have faith in the Lord. The Lord recognizes our striving to have faith in Him, so He will respond at least to requests through prayer.
To put it in perspective, because nobody’s faith is pure, it is unlikely that if you ask God to move a mulberry bush or a mountain to the sea, you will see them going there without you doing anything. But if you at least strive to have faith in God and you ask him to HELP you uproot a mulberry bush and bring it to the sea, God will do so if He finds your request to be a good one. And, if God finds it good that you ask him to HELP you move a mountain to the sea, He will do so…although you can only move a mountain piece by piece, and it may take many years before that is accomplished. Think of Mount Everest.
How is faith and prayer related? Well, if you have faith in Him, God will surely answer your prayers. Your prayers let God know that you need His help, or you need Him to help you do things. You may pray that God helps an ailing loved one, or that He helps you put your best foot forward in a job interview, or that He helps you study to get good grades in school. Sometimes the results of your prayers may not be what you’ve expected, but in the long run and in the whole scheme of things, whatever the results are is what God deems to be good.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
As far as the end result goes, faith is faith no matter how much or how little you have. In that regard, to say that one person has less faith than another is like saying that one woman is less pregnant than another. That is, just as a woman is either pregnant or she isn’t, a person either has faith or the don’t. The true variance lies in the degree you can exclude the doubts of your faith. It’s like pure gold being pure gold whether it is a nugget or a boulder, but the true variance is the degree to which you remove the rocks and minerals that have clung to it when you brought it up.
So faith has no measure. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you have faith. Luke 17:5-6 says, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like fa grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’”
Pure faith in whatever degree will uproot mulberry trees and move mountains. The catch is, your faith must be pure. If you have any degree of doubt, even to have doubt as small as a grain of mustard seed, it will hinder whatever faith you have. Jesus in Matthew 21:21 says, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.” In actuality, as nobody but Jesus is perfect, everyone has some degree of doubt to go along with their faith. If that weren’t the case, then you might walk along a busy street and see mountains and mulberry bushes flying by overhead, on their way to the sea!
But as we walk in the midst of earthly evils, the temptations arising thereof will cause us to have doubts about our faith in at least one time or another. That does not mean we should not have faith in the Lord. The Lord recognizes our striving to have faith in Him, so He will respond at least to requests through prayer.
To put it in perspective, because nobody’s faith is pure, it is unlikely that if you ask God to move a mulberry bush or a mountain to the sea, you will see them going there without you doing anything. But if you at least strive to have faith in God and you ask him to HELP you uproot a mulberry bush and bring it to the sea, God will do so if He finds your request to be a good one. And, if God finds it good that you ask him to HELP you move a mountain to the sea, He will do so…although you can only move a mountain piece by piece, and it may take many years before that is accomplished. Think of Mount Everest.
How is faith and prayer related? Well, if you have faith in Him, God will surely answer your prayers. Your prayers let God know that you need His help, or you need Him to help you do things. You may pray that God helps an ailing loved one, or that He helps you put your best foot forward in a job interview, or that He helps you study to get good grades in school. Sometimes the results of your prayers may not be what you’ve expected, but in the long run and in the whole scheme of things, whatever the results are is what God deems to be good.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
