A mountain is a big thing. One of our favorite places to vacation in the fall is the Great Smokey Mountains. David and his family had vacationed there when he was a child, but I did not see the Smokies until we had been married for a couple years and when I saw them, I was enthralled. Their beauty and grandeur never grow old. No matter the season, no matter the weather, they are beautiful to me.
We also enjoy the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. As we stood on a ridge in West Virginia one fall afternoon we watched as a mountain was literally being moved. Mountaintop mining was slowly, but surely moving a mountain that contained one of our most valuable natural resources, coal, and in that instance Mark 11: 24 came to mind and I learned a valuable spiritual lesson in what it takes to move a mountain.
In Mark 11:20-24 Jesus teaches His disciples and us an important lesson on the power of faith. The disciples had earlier witnessed Jesus speak to a fig tree: "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter, forever."
The next day they saw the same fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter pointed to it and said to Jesus, "Master, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away." And Jesus said, "Have faith in God." Then Jesus gave this promise: if we will look at the mountains in our lives and say,
"Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea" and if we will not doubt, but believe in our heart, we shall see the mountain moved.
Many times in my life I have told a mountain to move and when it didn't immediately move, I stopped telling it to move. I had faith in God that He could and would move the mountain, I tried not to doubt, but when I saw no movement, I gave up. But over the course of the last several months I have begun praying for a mountain in my life to move and this time, I will not give up. And even though some of it is still there, it has been moving, chunk by chunk for quite a while now. It isn't as big a mountain as it once was, it didn't move immediately, but little by little my mountain is moving. Someday soon I believe I will see the rest of it "cast into the sea."
Maybe you have a mountain that is so big and seems so hopeless that you just can't believe it will ever move. Is it a mountain of debt? Is is a mountain of pain and hurt in your marriage, in a family relationship, in your church? Is it a mountain of regret over past sins and mistakes and failures? Maybe it is a mountain of disease that threatens your health or even your life. Jesus would never have told us to tell a mountain to move if it wasn't possible to move it. All He asks is that we have faith; and for me, the patience to watch it move slowly, just a little at a time, but moving just the same.
Because you see, the slower the mountain is moving, the more God is refining me, rebuking me, cleansing me, and preparing me to live the abundant life He has promised without that mountain in my way.
So today I encourage you to say to your mountain, "Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea." "Have faith in God." Don't limit God by giving up too soon. Keep praying, keep believing, don't doubt His power to move your mountain, watch daily for evidence that the mountain is moving, even if it seems to be moving ever so slow. And here is the most important thing to do while you are waiting/watching your mountain move; even when it doesn't "feel" like it's moving one little bit, say "Thank You Lord for moving my mountain." God is exalted and honored each time we thank Him in advance for answering our prayer, for moving our mountain.
Because of His promise that faith can move our mountains, I will never look at the Smokies again without thanking Him and praising Him for the mountains in my life that He moved, that He has cast into the sea. And it all begins with faith. Have faith in God.
Blessings,
Penny
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