The Word To Live By:7-30-26
Phil Waggoner
He said to them, “Because of your meager faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a 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 17:20
The Word To Live By: We’re talking about the great faith of the centurion in Matthew 8 and here we see Jesus rebuking His disciples because of their meager faith and saying it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed for what you perceive as impossible to happen in your life. What’s the deal here? To begin with, if you study the word, “servant,” in Matthew 8:6 (who the centurion was asking for healing for), you will see it means young servant or servant boy. In those days, servants, and particularly servant children, were not considered important enough to spend time or money on to take care of. So, Jesus isn’t referring only to the size of the centurion’s faith but to the vast amount or the scope of it. He believed that God cared about everything in his life and that included what others thought was not important, which would translate to living by faith in every area of your life (spirit, soul, and body). The other thing I want you to see here is the word, “seed.” For seeds to produce, they have to be planted in advance of the fruit they bear. Right now, I’m eating ripe tomatoes from my garden that I planted in April, that somebody else planted the seed for in February. In the case of the disciples in Matthew 17, Jesus was saying you must be constantly planting the Word of God in your life so that when situations arise, all you have to do is pick the fruit. (I realize that’s a pretty simple explanation, but the principle is right.) Now, let’s look at how Jesus said to plant that seed. “You will say to this mountain…” You are constantly planting seeds of faith or doubt with what you say. If you look at the mountain-moving scripture in Mark 11:23, 24, you will see that what moves mountains is what you say with your mouth and believe in your heart. If you are living by faith, you don’t plant seeds of doubt and unbelief. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.” Not only is Jesus talking about putting the Word of God into your heart, He’s also saying don’t let the bad stuff out. And when you see weeds coming up and out of your heart, pull them by speaking scripture to counteract them. To conclude, great faith comes from planting the Word of God when you don’t need it so that when you do, the fruit is ready to pick.
Read through the Bible in a year: 1 Corinthians 15:1-34; 2 Kings 10; Micah 1;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 30, Matthew 15:21-39, Romans
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160