There was a very specific reason Jesus chose to use a mustard seed as a symbol for faith. The scripture tells us in Matthew 13:31-32,
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
There is a lot there in that verse, but I want to focus on the statement “yet when it grows”. The power of faith is an absolute force in creation, it is dynamic in nature. Just by activating it you can move mountains. But one thing that must occur is that it must be cultivated, and it must grow.
In one of my favorite movies, I find a perfect analogy. In “A Walk in The Clouds” a family’s entire vineyard is wipe out by fire. Because the root of the original plant, that was brought to this country, wasn’t burned completely, the family is able to rejoice that all isn’t lost. They would live on to run the vineyard once again.
How could they rejoice over one little root when acres and acres of grapevines were destroyed? Because of the power in that one little root. It will eventually produce enough to continue to replace the lost vineyard. That’s what we call the power of reproduction. God put the power to produce in all plants so that its multiple seeds, produce multiple plants. That in turn produce even more seeds, that produce even more plants! You get the point.
If I were to give you an apple and tell you one day you would run a successful orchard, what would be necessary to make that happen? Land, water, sun and most importantly, time! It would take time, in this apple scenario, it would take generations but, it would still be true. Future generation would benefit from your initial sowing of those apple seeds.
So, it is, with faith! Faith must be allowed to be cultivated. I realized that, this morning, in my devotion time with the Lord. I told him I feel like I am growing crops and crops of faith right now. Its just like wheat, I can almost see the stalks of faith blowing in the wind as they are reaching up towards the warm sun.
Faith must grow, it must have seasons of growth. Its just like a plant. There are growing times and harvest times. The cycle continues over and over. Your faith grows, you reap benefits from your faith. Your faith grows even more, you reap even more benefits from it. It will continue like this until the day you reach glory and see the results of all this faith growth. What an amazing day that will be!
If you are in a season of growing your faith, continue to cultivate it, water it with the word, let it get plenty of “Son” and trust that there will definitely be an even better harvest then your last, because of your enduring this season of growth.