Faith to Move Mountains By Karolyn Dekker

I’m guessing we’ve all had times in our lives when problems feel like unmovable mountains. I know I have. Yet, Jesus told his disciples “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.” (Matthew 17:20; NIV)

I thought about that concept as I stood in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and looked toward the mountains, majestic peaks covered by clouds. I considered their size. Could we truly move a mountain, humanly speaking?  I imagined the process of relocating even a moderate sized mound, one shovelful at a time, and putting it somewhere else. Duplication of the exact same elevation would prove impossible, not to mention my tiny shovel could never carry the massive rocks I’m sure to encounter along the way.

We can probably agree that God never intended us to move a literal hill, so what’s the point?  The mountain represents something immovable by human standards. God doesn’t want us to look at our problems in life only to conclude that it’s an impossible situation. Just as it would take faith to move a massive amount of earth intact (because it would require God’s supernatural intervention to make it happen), all He asks of us is to cling to our faith, trusting that He can move any mountain. 

Remember, thankfully, our faith only needs to be the size of a mustard seed. That truth reassures me on my less faith-filled days. Think about how many times Jesus said before healing someone, “Your faith has made you well.” The paraphrase: Your faith has moved your mountain! Nahum 1:5 says, “The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away.” (NIV) When God draws near, even the mountains shudder. The immovable moves! Imagine what happens when we invite God to address our seemingly unsolvable problems. 

God never intended for humans to be the source of mountain moving. Too many of us (I’m part of the “us”) sometimes try to move them on our own.  We plan, coordinate, arrange, manipulate, control…oh, my!  Yes, too often we try to fix problems in our own unhealthy ways. God longs to be invited into the process of moving our mountains. He may ask us to participate in some way beyond just having faith, but I’m guessing, more often than not, He asks us to trust Him in the process instead. Our battle-plan ideas are often shortsighted and birthed in ignorance. When Jehoshaphat was at his witt’s end, not knowing what to do (See II Chronicles 20), God told him to put the singers in front of the army as they marched to war, a strange tactic if you’re hoping for a surprise attack. However, when they arrived, they witnessed that God had already fought the battle for them…and won! 

Our logic and way of thinking is much different. We would’ve sent out spies, surveyed the land, launched a drone, Googled it, or about 1,000 other things to make sure that, according to our understanding, we would have done everything humanly possible to win the battle. Yet sometimes, God doesn’t tell us to fight. He asks us to have the faith of a mustard seed that moves mountains and watch Him do it instead. Personally speaking, I’m a wimp, so I’d much rather do the latter!

I don’t think I’ll look at mountains in the same way ever again!