Mountain sized hardship

I’ll be honest. I’ve gone back and forth with God about this idea that He mentions in His word about being able to move a mountain with just a mustard sized seed of faith. 

Logically, it makes sense that a mountain can represent hardship. I mean, if you’ve ever seen a mountain in person, they are not only overwhelmingly huge, but unmovable. At the base of the mountain, it appears to be so ingrained into the foundation, it’s hard to distinguish between the ground and the mountain itself. This is just the bottom of the mountain; this doesn’t include the climb up the mountain or the top of it.

When looking at it directly, there is enough evidence to prove that I can’t move it. When looking at it, I know there is a huge possibility that I couldn’t make it to the top & an even bigger possibility I wouldn’t make it over either. This understanding comes from common sense, but mostly from knowing myself. I know that I don’t have the strength to move it, nor the discipline required to make it to the top, or the confidence in my own ability to make it over. 

Honestly, it makes more sense to me, that we should need mountain sized faith to deal with mountain sized hardship. Because when seeing that mountain engraved in that seemingly unmovable foundation, reality becomes clear. It takes more than I have to move it.

Addiction, death, sickness, divorce & hardship to any capacity can be a mountain. And if the hardship alone isn’t humbling enough, the requirement to move it, is. Just a mustard sized seed of faith. It’s like “Lord, you want me to find a mustard sized seed of faith, in the presence of this mountain?”

The answer is yes. Because faith is trust in what you can’t see. If it was logical, then it’s not faith.

There is a scripture that I have been holding onto hard lately. Mark 11:24. It says to have faith in what you pray for. Which is interesting because I have prayed against a multitude of mountains & they didn’t move. Maybe you prayed against the mountain of divorce & it still went through. Maybe you prayed against the mountain of sickness, or death & the sickness never left, or they still passed away. Or worse, you prayed and the only thing that moved was your faith. Sometimes it can feel like the only thing that is certain is the unwavering awareness of how small you are spiritually, compared to it. 

And that’s the problem. It’s how you see the mountain. The trial or hardship is not the mountain, our unbelief is.

We have more belief in what we see & what we know, that when we pray & it doesn’t look like we expected, we believe that God either didn’t answer or our faith isn’t enough. Our faith is more than enough, which is why the mountain never moves. Because we have more faith in our own ability and not enough faith in His will or His word.

When you go up a verse in Mark 11:24, it says that if you have no doubt in your heart that His will be done, by faith it will be. 

His will for us is absolute freedom. That’s the whole reason He came and died for us. He came to set the captives free. He did that so that we are not bound or held down by the hardships or trials of this life. It’s His will that if anyone should call on His name, they WILL BE saved and set free. Do you believe it?

Do you believe that God is for our marriage? That He wants to honor our marriage covenant? Would you believe me if I said that we can sometimes be the mountain that stands between God’s will for our marriage? That God honors His will, not ours?

Do you believe God for the healing? Even if the healing comes in way that we didn’t expect or pray for it? That it’s His will that our soul doesn’t perish, even if our body does? Do we believe that it’s better to have our salvation than our life here on earth?

What’s even more wild is that mountains don’t even represent hardship. Not biblically anyways. Mountains represent God’s sovereign authority overall. Mountains are also used to represent sacrifice and worship. So, the fact that we see trials as a representation of something unmovable, is proof that our perspective is off. 

So, why doesn’t the mountain move? 

Because your faith is in the wrong thing. 

Did you know that in Galatians 3:16 the term “seed” is used to refer to Jesus Christ himself? When Paul interprets the promise regarding his “seed” as ultimately fulfilled in Christ. It says,“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.” He didn’t say “And to seeds”, as in many, but as of one, “And to your Seed, who is Christ.” 

So, if you say, “truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20-21. Why? Because nothing is impossible for Christ. Even the tiniest belief in that is enough to not only move mountains but remove the bondage of unbelief. Because if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. He promised us that. 

He is the God of covenant. Through the ages, He has kept every promise He has ever spoken. And that’s the difference between us and the ones who came before us. When God promised something, they trusted in Him to fulfill it, even if it didn’t make sense logically. It didn’t make sense for Abraham to sacrifice his only son if that was the only way God’s promise to him could be fulfilled. Did that stop Abraham from taking Issac up the mountain? No. Because faith is trust in what you don’t see. He knew that God would not have said it if it were not so. Do you believe it?

So, by faith, I believe the mountain or bondage in your life will be removed. Not because my faith is in you, but in Him. I don’t have to worry about whether I planted this seed or watered it, because I have faith in the one who provides the growth. My only prayer is your heart be fertile ground.