Mountain Faith

Tonight during my church midweek service, I read the following quote by Michelangelo on a church brochure: "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." It immediately caught my attention and sobered my soul. I always aim high because that's just how I roll! I dream the big, crazy dreams and I can envision it in my reality. But then my faith wavers when the results don't come as quickly as I expect them to or when I experience bumps along the way. I don't trust God all the way to the light at the end of my tunnel. I get caught up in the tunnel and take my eyes off Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. What joy is there in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark? On our own strength, we can achieve small feats. But, we worship a powerful God that parted the Red Sea. We praise a magnificent Lord that walked on water and told the raging waves to be quiet. We stand in awe of a Lord that fed more than 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. We bow before a Lord that rose from the dead. With God's strength, there is nothing that we can't do according to His will! For some of us, we set our aim very low because we lack the faith to aim high or we lack the vision. We are afraid that God won't answer our prayers and we're afraid to fail. We measure our potential for success against the failed dreams and the unanswered prayers. We don't have the faith that can move our mountains. Read with me in Matthew 17:19-20. It says, "Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, 'Why couldn’t we drive it out?' He replied, 'Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Why couldn't the disciples move their mountain? They couldn't even answer that question! Jesus answers it for them and for all of us. He says that it's because they had so little faith. They rose to the challenge of driving out demons. But, doubt and self-reliance must have crept in. They took their eyes off Jesus. The enemy awaits in those dark corners of our minds ready and willing to sabotage our faith. The enemy knows that with faith, we, like Joshua, can move God to stop the sun. Jesus says, in Matthew 13:32, that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree. It takes just a tiny mustard seed of faith to activate the power of God in our lives! Faith is like a muscle. It strengthens when we exercise it. When we exercise our faith, it grows bigger and bigger and becomes "the largest of all garden plants". Can you imagine what God can do through you when you have unshakable faith? I'm making an intentional decision, before God, to exercise my faith. I laid a very small hill before God today and He answered my prayer. I'm laying another hill before God and I'm going to trust Him to answer it as only He can. I'm also putting before God two really huge mountains. I've written them out and I'm laying them at the feet of my God and I'm going to exercise that mustard seed of faith because I know that God will deliver in His way and in His time. What about you? What mountains do you need to put before God because you know that only He can move it? Don't insult God's power by aiming low. Set dreams before God that are so big and so bold that they can only be accomplished through the power of God. All God asks is that we have faith. We don't need to move the mountain. He will!