Day 3 – The Mustard Seed Mindset

Sometimes, the words of Jesus can really hit hard. Like when He says, “Your faith is too small.” Not even as small as a mustard seed—no, even smaller. Ouch.

And a mustard seed is tiny: barely a millimeter wide. Minuscule. Yet Jesus says, if you had faith like a mustard seed, then... And there’s the key. It’s not about the size of the mustard seed, but the kind of faith—faith like a mustard seed.

A mustard seed is utterly dependent. It does nothing on its own strength. No pretensions, no grand plans. It falls into the soil and trusts completely in the sun, rain, earth, and the care of a gardener. That’s the kind of faith Jesus wants to see in us: completely reliant on Him—not on our own abilities.

It’s striking that Jesus often calls His disciples “you of little faith.” When they worry (Matt. 6), when they’re afraid in the storm (Matt. 8), or when they forget to bring lunch (Matt. 16). And each time, the issue is the same: they believe more in their own abilities—or lack thereof—than in the greatness of God.

So no, the faith Jesus is looking for isn’t greater confidence in your own faith, but a greater trust in the One who is truly trustworthy. It’s faith that knows it is radically dependent on Him. Like a child who still understands how dependent they are. Like a seed that knows it can’t make itself grow.

When we think, “Why didn’t it work?” like the disciples asked, there’s often a hidden belief behind it: that it would have worked if we had done better. But Jesus rejects that harsh thinking. Faith is not more of us. It is all of Him. John, one of the disciples who eventually understood this, wrote, “He must become greater; I must become less.” He bigger, me smaller... Or as Pete Greig puts it: “I’d rather have a small faith in a big, unshakable God than a big, unshakable faith in something unworthy of the title.”

Where do you notice that your faith is mostly based on what you can (or can’t) do? And how could you choose today to embrace the dependence of a mustard seed?