IT IS OKAY TO BE "TROUBLESOME"
One, mustard seed grows every place in the world...in cold climates as well as hot ones. It can grow in any type of soil. It is disease-resistant and hardy. It comes in four different kinds of color: yellow, white, brown and black. And it is described as a TROUBLESOME seed. That word TROUBLESOME caught my immediate attention! Something clicked! For then I remembered the story of the unjust judge:
"There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man, and there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying. Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for awhile but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow TROUBLETH me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find FAITH on the earth?"
Here was a revelation! The mustard seed certainly caused that farmer a lot of trouble...because it kept on multiplying and multiplying, just as that woman kept nagging that judge night and day about her case! And Jesus had linked her act of being persistent with FAITH!! The word "weary me" in this scripture is described as a "pugilist" (prize fighter) constantly pounding somebody in the eye! What does a prize fighter get in the ring to do? To win...by keeping up the blows until the opponent goes down and he wins the bout!
Mustard seed, when crushed, sets off a pungent odor...it also stings and hurts! It definitely gets your attention! And Jesus had used an unjust judge in this illustration to tell us that we have a JUST judge...our God! And would He not avenge us of our adversaries, our problems, our situations if we too could have this same kind of persistence? I had now discovered why Jesus had linked mustard seed to faith...it was hidden in that story of the unjust judge! He even closed out the discourse by saying, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). Mustard-seed faith?
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