Moving mountains 101

I'm sitting from my hotel room on vacation staring at the mountains of the desert. We flew over them yesterday and they looked so vast, even from 35,000 feet high. Unlike some mountains, covered in grass and trees until you hit their snowy peaks, these mountains are rock and dirt and sand, with only a few patches of green to break up the brown foreboding landscape. Dry and jagged, there is nothing inviting about these mountains. No one is going to look to these hills and feel a call to climb its lofty heights. These mountains rise up out of the desert as one more barrier to this difficult landscape. Some may see beauty in the desert, but without shade and water, death would quickly come to someone in this lifeless terrain.
Their size and uninviting nature makes me think about the often quoted line of Jesus from the book of Matthew where he tells the disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could command a mountain to move.
Matthew 17 is a very interesting chapter and the setting of this great statement by Jesus is often overlooked.
Peter has seen Jesus feed 5000, and also 4000, walk on water, perform many miracles and has confessed his belief that Jesus is the Christ. Yet, on this mountain, seeing Moses and Elijah, Peter offers to make tabernacles to all 3. God cuts Peter off while he is still speaking and says "This is My beloved Son which whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.". Then Peter, James and John fall on their faces terrified. Peter, like the rest of us, has confessed his belief in Christ several times already, but misses that Christ alone is worthy of worship. He once again is floored by the presence of God, left trembling and silent. The disciples trying to heal the boy were not the only ones lacking in faith. Even those at the transfiguration didn't fully understand who Jesus was.
In Hebrews 11 we have an amazing list of people commended for their faith. But this chapter absolutely blows my mind with the description of what faith actually is. "Now faith is the assurance of things hope for, the conviction of things not seen.". This statement alone is petty complicated, but the author goes on to describe how these people listed all died having not received the promise but having seen it and greeted it from afar. Faith sees the unseen and dies with the assurance of the promise, even though it wasn't fulfilled in their time. Now the disciples had Jesus standing right next to them, but still lacked in their faith. They saw who He was and still missed the truth of His very nature of God and man.
Does Jesus say we can move mountains, because that is something useful for us to do or because it is the impossible being made possible? Are we called to be holy as God is holy because we actually can? Are we called to love one another as Christ loved us because we actually can?
As I study Leviticus, time and time again I see that the law given to Moses was impossible yet in many ways easier to understand. Being told a food is unclean is easier to avoid than when Paul tells us that everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. The weight is on us to obey the heart of the Lord, not simply a checklist that calls us not eat certain types of bugs. The Law, while perfect and holy, can seem a little easier because it is following things we can see, hear and touch. I can know that I haven't murdered someone - but Jesus knows my murderous and angry heart. I can know that I haven't stolen, but Jesus sees my greed and coveting nature.
Faith that moves mountains makes the unseen things visible - we are confident and assured of the truth of who God is and what He has done for us. Faith that moves mountains doesn't need God to say "yes" to my prayers to make me believe in His power or love or presence. Faith that moves mountains doesn't offer to God my ability to live my daily walk independently and only call Him in on the really hard things.
Faith that moves mountains sees the God who established those mountains before the beginning of time and will shake them again at His return. Faith that moves mountains sees that God calls us to do all things in His strength, never relying on our own. To some, getting out of bed may be a mountain. Going to work may be a mountain. My current favorite verse in scripture right now is Mark 9:24 "I do believe, Lord. Help my unbelief."
My mountain (and I would venture everyone else's too) is my unbelief. The faith that moves mountains isn't about actually making the mountain move - its about offering everything up to the Lord for His provision. Even our own disbelief. Christy Knockles song "Waiting here for You" says "If faith can moves the mountains, let the mountains move. We come with expectation, waiting here for You.". This song is the heart of faith that moves mountains - waiting on God with the expectation of His presence. God has all knowledge, all mysteries, all power. When we depend on His presence, He will move the mountains, part the seas, raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out our demons and provide for our every need. But He will do it in all wisdom for His timing, for His glory, for our best. He established the mountains but He also establishes us. Colossians 2:6-7 says we are rooted in Him and our faith is established in Him. We are told in Ephesians 3:17 says we are established in love (also in Him).
This is our call - not to move the mountains ourselves, but to be established in the One who made them. Whatever your mountain is, be like the Psalmist, who says "I lift my eyes into the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.". Look for the Maker of the mountain, and He will move that mountain out of the way so that your focus sees Him more clearly. There you go - your mountain has moved!