Archive for month: August, 2019

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

Exciting, breath taking, unexplainable and amazing are just a few of the descriptive words for living in God’s Kingdom. Mountain moving faith isn’t the exception, but it is God’s plan for the way his children should live. There is an interesting exchange between Peter and Jesus in Matthew 17. Peter has been to the mountaintop and reprimanded along with the other disciples about their lifeless faith and confronted with the impending death of Jesus. Then this interchange happens:

“After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes-from their own children or from others?” “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Can you imagine the dialogue going on in Peter’s head when he heard what Jesus told him to do? Maybe he wondered, “Did he really say to me “go fishing”? Catch a coin spitting fish? Jesus has told me some crazy things but this tops them all. I don’t understand but I will do it.”

Jesus didn’t just tell Peter to go catch a fish and sell it to pay the tax. That would have been a miracle in itself if one fish could be sold for the tax. No, the fish will have a coin. Nothing at this point made sense to Peter but out of obedience and faith he walked to the sea’s edge to catch a fish. Sometimes it takes faith just to walk to the edge.

Peter could have said it wasn’t logical or practical and refused. He could have decided that he had a better way than going fishing. He could have formed a committee to figure out how to pay the tax. Yet he chose to listen to Jesus. Just think what it must have done for Peter’s faith when he took this slimy coin and put it in the religious leader’s hand.

Oswald Chambers says it well, “Oh, the bravery of God in trusting us! Do you say, “But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing good in me and I have no value”? That is exactly why He chose you.”

Prayer focus: