Faith Like a Mustard Seed (Matthew 17:19–20)

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
– Matthew 17:19–20

What a powerful picture of Jesus confronting his disciples for their lack of faith. And the whole lead-up to this is really moving. There’s a man who comes up to Jesus crying out for mercy on his son, who has seizures and his suffering, and throws himself into a fire oftentimes. This man had brought his son to the disciples, and they couldn’t heal him. And Jesus starts talking about how they were faithless.

And then Jesus rebukes this demon. It comes out of his son. The boy’s healed instantly. And the disciples are like, “Why couldn’t we do that?” And Jesus says, “Because of your little faith”.

Matthew 17:19–20 reminds us that faith depends on God’s strength.

And when I read this, I just immediately pray for more faith, realizing that it’s just a little bit of faith. So what’s amazing about what Jesus says here is he doesn’t say, “If you have faith like a mountain, then you can move mountains”. He says, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed”, like the tiniest little bit of faith, then you can see mountains moved.

So, I just want to lead us to pray. God, we pray for faith in our lives, for trust in our lives, and that you have power to do the impossible. God, we pray that we would trust in you, in your power, as we ask for all kinds of things in our lives and others’ lives, whom we love.

And just think about this dad crying out for mercy on his son. God, we pray for you to do the impossible in different things we’re walking through in our lives, different things that are heavy on our hearts for others’ lives. God, we pray for you to do the impossible, and we trust you have power to do the impossible. And as we’ve prayed before, we know that your power is mingled together with your perfect wisdom and your perfect love.

Matthew 17:19–20 teaches us to trust God for the impossible.

And so we know you are all wise, which is why we don’t always see you answer exactly what we would ask. We trust you’re far wiser, infinitely wiser than we are. And you’re infinitely loving. You’re infinitely good. You give good things to those who ask you, according to Matthew 7. And so we pray, God… I just feel led to encourage all of us right now, just bring things to your mind that seem impossible and ask God for them.

I’m doing the same. God, we’re laying before you, our pleas for you to do the impossible. Please God, do that which cannot happen apart from your power, and your wisdom, and your love at work. And God, we pray for the kind of faith that Jesus is talking about here. We pray for faith that honors you, that glorifies you. Lord, we don’t want to be faithless. We don’t want to miss out on your work in our lives, or your work in others’ lives, because of our faith being too small.

Help our unbelief, God, we pray, grow our faith. And God, we want to pray in faith for the peoples of the world, for the spread of the gospel to the nations with faith. Lord, so many people, groups that are closed off to the gospel, that are hard to reach with the gospel, we pray with faith in your power to do the impossible.

Move mountains, break down obstacles. We pray specifically for brothers and sisters in Christ who are working in really hard places.

Prayer for the Kusavar Kumhar People

We pray specifically today for the Kusavar Kumhar people of Bangladesh. And Lord, millions upon millions of unreached people in Bangladesh and other places like it that are so hard to reach with the gospel.

We pray, God, break down barriers, move mountains, open doors for disciples to be made, churches to be multiplied among all the nations, we pray, including the Kusavar Kumhar people, Bengali-speaking Muslims, and thousands of other people groups.

God, we ask with faith for you to do what only you can do in our lives and others’ lives around us who we love, and among the nations, all according to your Word in Matthew 17:19–20. Give us faith to believe in your power to do the impossible. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.