Jesus Christ said, “If you have faith as 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 to you”
(Matthew 17:20).
One way I interpret this statement is to see that the smallest amount of faith in the goodness of God is infinitely more powerful than the largest amount of faith in evil. Why? Because evil is not the power it claims to be. God is the only power.
A “mountain of evil” is nothing compared to any sense of good, no matter how small it appears.
Faith in good is more potent than faith in evil
April 11, 2024 | 23 comments
Thank you Evan to remind us that faith in the goodness of God is paramount in healing.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2av82vqnd40?s=copylink
Oh THANK you, Martine, for this wonderful article by Channing Walker in the June, 2001 Christian Science Journal: Faith and the ‘art of motorcycle maintenance.’
;-)) Sue Krevitt
Thank you, Martine, for the link to this excellent article. I had never thought of faith as originating in God – as “something not of our own making, but of God’s. Far from being the assent of a person, such faith is the activity of the Divine.” Much food for thought!
And thank you, Evan for pointing out how powerful our faith is even when we may think it’s not enough.
So grateful for Spiritview!
Evan, Thanks for bringing up this subject. I really appreciate your comments.
“Confidence” by Martha Harris Bogue, CSD
The Christian Science Journal, March, 1903
https://www.endtime.org/public/library/articles/bogue.html
Love the topic, love the link, Martine! It is a keeper for sure. Love SpiritView! Thx everyone.
Thank you Joy too for the reminder of this article that fits so well with Evan’s message! Confidence to move mountains!
Great message!
Here’s the Journal link: https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/10wk1qu774c?s=copylink
So Good, Anne! Thank you ! I Love the topic too and ALL these contributions. Great conversation, indeed!!!
Evan’s blog on faith along with the articles shared are so wonderful to read and ponder as I start me day with God alongside! Thank you!
Ditto! Excellent, thought-provoking and inspiring articles Martine and Joy – thank you for sharing them!
Thank you Evan for the wonderful blog today and for all the comments from others. I appreciate having the references to articles; from the CSJournal. Something I have needed to explore more and practice every day. Thanks to everyone who has shared their comments.
Blessings to all.
Suzie H
As a child, someone (I think my Mom) had given me a pin with a half marble-sized glass
sphere with a tiny mustard seed within. I still have it and resembles the faith that all
of us can have that can move mountains or that seem to be impossible. It is such a
teeny little seed, as are seeds planted in a garden, that look so inadequate to produce a
beautiful flower or plant that produces vegetables or fruit or even eventually a large tree..
A few years ago, I had planted from a packet, a mixture of greens/seeds and from it sprang
a plant I didn’t recognize. It turned out to be a mustard plant that grew and grew…. like our
spiritual understanding, when nurtured with love and caring. It produced many seeds
and there were many more plants from it the following year. The seeds we plant of Truth,
like the mustard seed, can multiply in ways we may never know, but our faith in God and the
eternity and unlimited power can spring forth such as tiny seeds into possibilities we can’t
even imagine.
Beautiful, Angel! Your comments inspire me to have even more faith in our Christian Science prison/jail ministry, where the seeds we plant with Truth and Love, nurtured by our prayers, are sure to produce blossoms, fruits, and more seeds “in the fulness of the time.”
Thank you for your thoughts. I, too, received a similar gift of a bracelet with that tiny mustard seed globe from one of my CS Sunday School teachers a long time ago. I often think of it and remember it.
THANK YOU ANGEL, stunning example of receiving a gift of GREAT value, inspiring me to follow the example of presenting the “half marble-sized glass sphere” with a tiny mustard seed within to each relative, as the current/present example of ‘the faith that all of us can have that can move mountains, or that seem to be impossible”. All together, we would learn that we can make our world a better place.
You inspire me to plant real mustard seeds in front of my home, removing all the flavors of mint, then replacing mint with mustard seeds, where the water system will automatically moisten the mustard seeds as the dry season arrives, where there’s plenty of sun light. Feels right, to have a simple representation of the Bible’s promise. THANK GOD!
Thank you so much for your extended responses, Carolyne, katherine and
chilesands. I love how this sweet gift given so many years ago, (along with Jesus’ comment,
Evan’s expanding on it and the other commenters -) has inspired your thoughts today.
Thank you kindly Evan for today’s uplifting message. It’s great to know we only need a little faith and understanding of spiritual reality to wipe out what may seem like “a mountain of evil.” This counteracts any belief or fear that we don’t know enough or understand enough to experience healing.
More on the tiny mustard seed: (Matthew 13:31-32) “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”
Thanks to everyone for sharing articles and insights, love to all.
Thank you Evan and Martine and Joy and all contributors for your feast today.
I had picked out a verse from the Bible and from Science and Health from the lesson today to ponder on. They are about Faith as well. This Spirit View is a beautiful follow-up to that.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
(Heb. 10:23)
/When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.
(SH 368:14)
Joy, is there any way to enlarge the print on that article? It’s too tiny
for me to read.
Thank you, Anne for the link to a larger print of this article. It was
very helpful!!!
Wow, I just now, 11.30 pm in Germany, I had a peaceful time, reading in our Herold. And afterwords I read today’s SpiritView more thoroughly than I could this morning. And luckily I now got the depth of the inspiration
Thank you very much, Evan; it is so clear and beautiful explained and gives me wonderful spiritual insight of what you intend to teach us with this. Am deeply grateful for it!♡
Thank you all for the very helpful articles today! They are very helpful and inspiring. It gives me a richly set table with spiritual food. Thanks all such a lot for it!♡
A little girl raised in Christian Science felt she did not understand this parable of Jesus. She thought to herself, “I have faith as a little mustard seed, but I can’t move mountains.” We sometimes do not know when children are wanting to understand but feel they don’t. The articles presented here open up thought to the fact that it is faith in God to do the mountain moving, not faith in ourselves, and the faith will come from God. The idea that He will do the receiving too is sometimes puzzling. I am praying tonight that all children and new Bible readers have faith formed and delivered to them just as they need it from God, and that they are made to receive it gently, gratefully and without fear that they don’t understand, but with joy that as faith flows in from God, the understanding flows in with it.
Thanks a lot Kay for your very lovely comment. I feel it’s very comforting and compassionate.