“Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt… you can say to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and it will be done.'” Matthew 21:21
There’s a huge earth moving machine digging the basement for a new office building next door to the building where I work. I guess they’ve been digging for pretty close to a month now, and I must admit, they’ve got quite a mountain of dirt piled up our there. There’s a whole crew of dump trucks continuously driving up on this man-made mountain and dropping off the dirt. Still, with all their digging and piling of dirt, they haven’t even made a footstool for a real mountain–a mountain like Jesus said we could cast into the sea with just a speck of faith. I’ve often marveled at this scripture, and even thought it must have been some type of hyperbole–a grand exaggeration to make a point! After reading it, I would feel like my pathetic faith must be of a much weaker variety. Let’s face it, with God’s help I’ve been able to do some pretty cool stuff, but I haven’t even moved an ant hill with my faith… or have I?
Now that I think of it, before I was a Christian I had some serious mountains in my life: a problem drinker at 12; a nicotine habit at 13; a drug problem at 14; very destructive thoughts; bouts of depression and violent anger; total disrespect for authority; sexual sins, and the list could go on and on. It’s funny, no matter how much I used to try to win over these destructive habits, nothing seemed to work. Several times one or more of them nearly drove me to my grave. After accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, I look back over a few years and realized that, ALL of these mountains are gone. There isn’t even a trace of them left–through His blood, I’ve truly become a new creation. Not a perfect creation, but definitely on the right track. I guess my “mountains” have been “thrown into the sea.”
Looking back, it seems that faith is a more effective mountain-mover if it’s focused on the source of the power, and not on the mountain. No wonder that verse never made any sense before I knew my Lord.
In Christ,
PastorJimKilby @Kilbin8er
Jim@JamesKilby.com