How to Tell if You Have Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

About 30+ years ago a woman I knew was diagnosed with cancer. She thought she was going to die, and she lived in fear every day that what she assumed would happen would actually happen. I remember telling her that if she had some faith, even a tiny bit of faith, she would be fine. The Bible (Matthew 17:20) talks about faith the size of a mustard seed, and I read somewhere that comparing a mustard seed to the period at the end of this sentence would help anybody understand just how small faith needs to be in order for miracles to occur. All these years later, that woman is still alive. 

As the years have passed, I’ve thought many times about faith. When I received a cancer diagnosis in 2009, I firmly believed that I would survive. Belief and faith go hand in hand. The word, cancer, is scary. So many people automatically think they’re going to die; they lose hope and they give up. 

We understand their fears. In these days especially, with evidence mounting that faith doesn’t matter, because the world seems to be crumbling around us, how can any of us find faith if we think we have none? We look at the lies, the deceit, the cruelty, the dangers, and we find no evidence to support the possibility of surviving the cataclysmic events that will assuredly visit us. Our view of this world has dimmed.

And yet, maybe things will turn around. Maybe we are experiencing exactly what we are supposed to be experiencing at this time. And that word, maybe or possibly, is what “faith the size of a mustard seed” means. If we think, maybe – possibly – or what if, we have just introduced into the realm of possibility that what we don’t believe can happen may actually happen. The words, maybe, possibly, and what if, invite faith. We just have to recognize their existence in our vocabulary.

So if, in our minds, in our hearts, and in our spirits, we consider the possibility of other options, without recognizing what those considerations mean, we have found a tiny mustard seed of faith. Faith gives us hope. And when Faith and Hope walk hand in hand, Love guides.