At nine o'clock yesterday morning i received the news from my sister that my aunt in the Philippines has been diagnosed with a tumor in her colon. She was just admitted at the hospital and her blood pressure has been very low and she's been febrile for a while. My sister asked me if i knew about it already and if i did, did i ask the church to pray for my aunt? I told her i heard about this disturbing news just now from her. I went to work at the church an hour later and asked for prayers from our senior and associate pastors. I praised God for HIS provision in sending our two pastors one after another in the same morning. I normally don't see them come in on the same day during the week. Once again, GOD'S timing is so there! It's so amazing how HE provides to encourage you. If you really seek him fully he could be found. HE always surprises us with how HE provides.
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Matthew 17:19-21
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it our?"
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, 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.
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Notes from Dr. Constable - Soniclight.com
The "we" in the disciples' question is in the emphatic position in the Greek text. The problem, as Jesus explained, was their weak faith (Gr. oligopistia). It was not
the quantity of their faith that was deficient but its quality. In spite of the revelation of Jesus that they had received, the disciples had not responded to it with trust as they should have done. They had some faith in Jesus, but it should have been stronger.
"Much earlier, Jesus had endowed the disciples with authority to exercise demons as part of their mission to Israel (10:1,8). Consequently, he expects them to draw on this authority. But if they approach the tasks of their mission forgetful of their empowerment and encumbent by a crisis of trust, they render themselves ineffectual."
Removing mountains is a proverbial figure of speech for empowering great difficulties (cf. Isa. 40:4;49:11;54:10; Matt. 21:21-22; Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6; 1 Cor. 13:2). In this context the difficulties in view involved exercising the authority that Jesus had delegated to them to heal people. The disciples were treating the gift of healing that Jesus had given them as a magical ability that worked regardless of their faith in Him. Now they learned that their power depended on proper response to revelation, namely, dependent confidence in Jesus to work through them to heal. Continual dependence on Jesus rather than simply belief in who He is constitutes strong faith (cf. Mark 6:5-6).
"Nothing is impossible for the disciple of Jesus who with faith works within the establised will of God. It is therefore the care that not every failure in the performance or reception of healing is the result solely of insufficient faith."
Verse 21 does not occur in several important ancient manuscripts. Evidently copyists assimilated it from Mark 9:29: "And He said to them, 'This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.'"
The lesson of this miracle for the disciples was that simple belief that Jesus is the King may be adequate when a person first realizes who Jesus is. It can even result in spectacular miracles. However with the privilege of added revelation about the person and work of Jesus comes increased responsibility to trust totally in Him. Failure to do this weakens faith and restricts Jesus work through the disciple (cf. John 15:5).
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