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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 17:20
Reflect
Have you ever watched a child jump to their father in a swimming pool? Very often, that comes after a conversation like this:
“Honey, do you believe daddy can catch you?”
“Yes, daddy!”
“Do you believe daddy will catch you if you jump to him?”
“Uh huh…”
“OK then, now … jump to daddy!”
The answers to the questions always come easier than taking any action. That’s because merely believing that a thing can happen has little to do with actually trusting someone else with making that thing happen. It’s like riding a bicycle. Trusting your parents to not let you fall when their hands are on the bike is a lot easier than trusting that everything will be OK once they let go.
In today’s scripture, Jesus’ disciples had no doubt that a demon could be cast out of a person. They’d seen Jesus do it many times. But when it came to doing it themselves, they started to have serious doubts. And those doubts kept them from being able to do the same thing.
Jesus reminds us in Matthew 17 that the amount of faith needed to do amazing and incredible things is unbelievably small. He used a mustard seed as an example – and that’s barely bigger than a grain of sand. Basically, if you have just a grain of faith, you could move the mountains in your life that look impossible. And you could certainly jump to your daddy in the swimming pool.
This week, try to remember to have that “mustard seed faith” when you come up against the problems that life presents to you. Remember that with God on your side, and with just a tiny amount of faith in Him, you and He can do incredible things together.
Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
