"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed ... nothing will be impossible for you". Matthew 17:20
Jesus calls our attention to a tiny mustard seed. If you were to place a grain of sand and a grain of mustard on the palm of your hand, you would almost need a magnifying glass to tell the difference. God's marvelous wisdom and power are in that small object. The mustard seed has life in it. Put it into the ground, Jesus is telling us, and it will take root and grow into a plant that is the largest of the herbs--a treelike plant with stalk, branches, leaves, and blossoms, a plant large enough for birds to perch in it and to build their nests.
This parable tells us how a small nucleus of believers, such as the group that followed Jesus, will under God's blessing grow into a strong congregation. And it keeps growing because, together with other congregations, it sends out mission workers to add other people to Christ's church. Many thriving church bodies in various parts of the world were begun in this way. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin, is God's power unto salvation to all who believe it. What we need is stronger faith, being fully convinced that for Christ's people nothing is impossible.
PRAYER: Almighty God, heavenly Father, we pray for a faith as small as a mustard seed so we may do Your work. Amen.
(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: Isaiah 45-46 Romans 8:22-39
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"