And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Luke 17:6

People like to try to encourage others about their little faith by sharing one of these verses about the grain of mustard. Mustard seeds are very small, but who do you know has taken their seed of faith and told a tree or mountain to be thrown into the sea and it obeyed? How many of you know you have the faith confidence to make that happen today?

I’m assuming none of you. Me neither. I never found this verse encouraging, just the opposite until I started learning about living by His strength and not my own.

He doesn’t give us strength and then we have the power to act on our own. No! He is our strength, so He has to act. He doesn’t give us power; He is the power. He gives us Himself. He doesn’t give us our own faith to wield as we please. He gives us His faith. Check out the Greek and the KJV translation of Galatians 2:20. We live by the faith OF the Son of God. That’s why we have nothing to be thanked for, why we are just servants. It’s all Him.

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?…”We are unworthy servants.”

Luke 17:9-10 ESV