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Tiny Irritants
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32) If a tiny mustard seed can grow into a tree that spans an area of up to 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide, think of the implications for your life! Pearls are formed when an irritant, such as a bit of food, a grain of sand, bacteria, or even a piece of the mollusk's mantle becomes trapped in the mollusk. To protect itself, the mollusk secretes a substance made of mineral and protein to continually coat the irritant, only succeeding in making the irritant larger, thus the pearl. Similarly, a tiny pebble in your shoe becomes an irritant, that if not removed, the irritant seems to grow larger even though the pebble remains the same. “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” (Matthew 17:20) If a tiny amount of faith only the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain how much more can faith in Christ do in your life? The opposite also can bring us down, for sin, no matter how large or small even as the size of a mustard seed can keep us from all the best Christ has for us. And yet it may seem we are the mollusk trying to coat over the sin in our life to prevent it from being an irritant, but like the mollusk all we accomplish is making the irritant larger. Why do we continue to walk through life allowing those irritating little pebbles of sin to affect our relationships, conversations, our commitments and every day life by causing us pain and grief like a pebble in our shoe? Tolerate them No Longer! Stop, and ask God to remove the pain and struggles by simply asking the Lord for His forgiveness and removal of those things. Now is the time to begin living in faith and obedience! You have the choice. Yes, faith the size of a mustard see can move a mountains and God can work in and through your life by whatever way He knows is best for you to grow in your faith. Even as that tiniest of seeds grows over time into a huge tree, so does our faith and trust in the Lord. Many times, I have asked God to allow me to move what seems to be an unscalable mountain in my life, and God was faithful, though His method was to hand me a teaspoon instructing me “be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” and by faith, one spoonful at a time I will see you through. But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit (Jude 20:12) Yours in Christ, Rev. Jerry Schmid
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AuthorNotes from the Staff @The Woods Archives
March 2023
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