Mark 11:22-23

Mark 11:22-23 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself in the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”

       “Have faith in God.” It is a simple statement, yet there are times when it seems so hard. When you are going through the storm and the mountain is in front of you it can be hard to put your faith in God. All your circumstances tell you one thing, but God’s Word speaks something different.

       These are the times when it is most important to believe in the promises of God. You see, Jesus never said you would have an easy life. He never said that when we choose Him, life would get simple. It is definitely better and we can find hope in Him, but He assures us that in this world we will face trials.

       There will be mountains that we have to face, but He also tells us how to face them. He gives us a way through. Jesus tells us that if we say to the mountain ‘Go throw yourself in the sea,’ and have no doubts, it will happen. How’s that for a promise?

       If we have faith in God there is nothing that can stop us. Troubles will come, you can count on it; there will be things that stand before you, but God is bigger than all of them. Proverbs says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Put your faith in God and nothing will be able to block your path. If anything tries, speak to it and it will move.  

Matthew 19:26

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Our God is the God who makes impossible things happen. For Him, nothing is impossible. Jesus tells His disciples this just after a confrontation with a young rich man.

This rich young man had lived a good life. He had obeyed the commands of the Lord and was overall what you would consider a good man. On top of that He was successful in sense of finances; he had a lot of money.

When he came to Jesus I think he was looking for affirmation. He looked at his life and thought he was doing pretty well and he wanted Jesus to see this. As they were going through the list of commandments he told Jesus that he had kept them. Jesus agreed. 

Right about now I’m sure this man was feeling pretty good, but Jesus goes on. “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus told him, “go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” As the man heard this, his heart sank and he went away sad because he had great wealth. 

Jesus then told His disciples how hard it is to enter heaven and this confused them. Think about it though, whether you are rich or poor or somewhere in between, it is not possible for you to get into heaven. You can’t do it on your own, there is no way. It is impossible.

Then we are reminded that our God makes the impossible, possible. He takes what we can’t do ourselves and does it for us. Through Jesus He took all our imperfection and made us righteous and holy.

See, what this man’s problem was is that he valued his money more than God. That made it hard for him to think about giving it all up to follow Jesus. Often we get stuck in that same trap. We value things above God, even when we don’t have much. Would you be able to give it all up if God asked you too?

When you put God first in your life He makes the impossible happen for you. It starts with salvation and continues in every area of your life. With God first in your life you will have no limitations. Nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 17:20

Matthew 17:20 - He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, 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.”

We have all been given faith. Faith is what allows us to tap into the power of God. It is through faith that we believe and are saved and faith also brings all the promises of God to life for us.

In order for us to get the full benefits of faith we must understand what it is and how it works. Faith is belief. It is believing in something that cannot be seen at the moment. Hebrews 11:1 describes it like this: ‘Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’

So even though we cannot see it, we still believe beyond a shadow of doubt that it is real and true. Take salvation for instance. We are saved because of what Christ did for us through His death and resurrection, but we weren't there when it happened. How do we know it happened? We believe.

Our faith takes us from being an ordinary person to being a child of the Most High God. It is an amazing thing. So if we can have faith for salvation why can’t we move ‘mountains’ in our lives?

Jesus gives an image of faith as a small seed. If you think about a seed you know that in order for it to be effective it has to grow. I believe it is the same with faith. Much of our life we have been conditioned and taught to only believe what we can see. We've all heard the expression, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

Now we receive faith. It starts as a small seed and we have to make it grow. We have to use the faith we have been given and act on it. Then we can move the mountains. Faith in God makes the impossible a possibility.