"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
I sat in my car this morning doing my devotions (I do them in the parking garage at work, so I don't have any distractions!) and this verse came up and bit me in the rear, if you will. You see, I have a lot of medical "issues" that I would love to be rid of. One of those issues is TMJ. TMJ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint_disorder) is something that causes me to grind my teeth, clench my jaw and give me headaches. I've had this disorder for a long time and I've always wanted to be rid of it. My mother used to have the same issue, and when I asked her what she did to get rid of it, she simply answered "I prayed it away". what a beautiful and simple solution, right? well I've been trying to do that now for about 10 years. Every time I read this passage, I think of my mother and how she was able to rid herself of something based purely on her faith. Why can't I have that kind of faith?
The little mustard seed is just that, LITTLE; yet I can't seem to get enough faith to fill it up. think about that, the mustard seed is the smallest seed that a farmer in Jesus time would have known about. How many seeds would it have taken to fill up one's hand? I don't know...and I can't find it on the Internet anywhere, but I'm sure it was a lot. if all we need is the faith of ONE little mustard seed to move a mountain, how come I can't pray away something as simple as TMJ?
It all comes down to faith. What is faith anyway? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). The NLT version states it this way "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Again, this seems pretty simple to me, but I can't seem to get there. I can't seem to have that confidence that it WILL happen for me. TMJ isn't the only area in my life that I struggle with this, but for today's purposes that's the one I'm sticking with.
I know that both of these verses are true, and both have a huge significance in my life. That being said, what is my weapon here? Prayer. I think I've been going about this whole thing wrong. I've been praying that God would take away my TMJ, when in actuality I should have been praying that God would teach me to have the faith of a mustard seed. They tell us in everything we do, we should do it in baby steps. so this is my first step. I'm praying that the Lord will teach me to have the faith of something as small as a mustard seed.
i can understand how hard it can be to have the faith that we need to just trust it will happen. There are things that we all have in our lives that are like that. hugs! here's to hoping your lesson isn't to difficult!
ReplyDeleteHoney, it's Grammy here...hey, I had this too, many years ago--when we still lived on Greenleaf. The pain was almost unbearable, at times. Now, this is really going to tick you off, so get into a non-resistant mode when I share this with you--but I was healed of it, too. I remember perfectly, that I was pouring peas into a pot in the kitchen and all of a sudden, it felt like a dentist was inside my mouth...I felt shifting, alignment, some popping...and just then, Larry walked through the door. I said, "I do believe I am being healed, even as we speak!" And from that day, I have never been bothered one whit by the problem. Now,I know you are happy for me, but you are also ticked because your Ma and I make it sound simple. Right? Well, it is...and it isn't...simple, I mean. But here is a suggestion: When next you are aware of the pain and discomfort...start thanking and praising God for allowing you to have this challenge. Feel the pain and just live with it, and ask the pain why it won't go away. See what shows up and write it down...and hey, I like YOUR blog, too! It seems like a really neat way to get into something deeper than the one-liners we get on Facelift...Love, Grammy Potterbaum
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