How is your faith today? It seems an odd question but I think a fair one to ask, especially since I believe we all have days of stronger and weaker faith in our lives. Maybe try this one, what kind of faith do you have right now, is it Sustaining Faith, or Mustard Seed Faith? Don’t know the difference? You may think faith is just faith, but most people actually just have one kind of faith, not as many have the second, more profound kind. I recently learned the difference one Sunday, and it not only changed how I see faith, but more importantly, how I pray.
This past month our church held its month long celebration of its extensive global ministry partners and their outreach projects worldwide. The centerpiece of this event involves a huge seed packing activity at all campuses, including visits from different ministry partners and most importantly, guest speakers. It was on a recent Sunday that my wife and me listened to a pastor from Africa preach on several profound topics, such as his ministry to victims of sex trafficking and prostitution in his country, but also beliefs on faith and prayer. He was bold, charismatic and filled with the Holy Spirit as he related his explanation on two forms of faith, Sustaining and Mustard Seed Faith. He spoke about how Sustaining Faith was the type of faith that most people utilize on a daily basis to get through our everyday lives, meaning nothing that is too overwhelming or extraordinary is what you deal with here. However, Mustard Seed Faith, on the other hand, is the big faith that many do not have, the faith that answers the most impossible prayers, the faith that moves mountains. We all know the quote from Matthew, the one that goes “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to the mountains move and they will move.” The pastor challenged us as to the quality of our faith, and the nature of our prayers, as he didn’t accuse people of not having enough faith, he rather reminded us that we need only faith the size of, you know…a mustard seed. But our prayers went right along with that, as he then pointed to the fact that we may ask God for what we need, but we are usually asking for too little, for the mundane, for things we believe could happen rather than our deepest desires.
