When I was a teenager in Springfield, I had a friend who would say anything to convince me to buy a car. “If you had a car,” he said, “you could get all the way to St. Louis in under two hours.”

I believed him, and that’s how a few weeks later, I ended up in the office of a used car dealer. When I had signed all the papers for my rusted beauty, I walked outside got in, and started preparing myself to see the St. Louis Skyline.

You can imagine my disappointment two hours later, when I looked up and was still sitting in the parking lot of the car dealer.

Okay, I made that story up. But something similar did happen. See, my Father sent this messenger who said that “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

So I got my faith, went to church, prayed…

...and waited for the mountains to move.

Jesus said I can do anything (“nothing will be impossible for you”) if I have enough faith. So why am I not rolling in money, eating caviar, going on vacation in the Swiss Alps, and all of those other things that people who can do anything usually do?

I believe that there is a simple answer out of the book of James: “faith without works is dead.”

We sometimes invent this image of God as the irresponsible parent who lets us eat candy for breakfast and play video games all day; not the father who makes you eat your vegetables and do your homework.

In other words, whatever the Christian-self-help books might say, God is not going to give you everything you want: The money, Swiss vacations, candy and video games. God knows that there is something better for your spiritual health: putting it into action.

Have faith, and act on that faith. Get the car, and drive it. Do your homework. Act in the confident faith that, with God, your actions will not be in vain.

And while it might not be easy, fun or even pleasant, the determination that comes from knowing that God will ultimately bring your work to fulfill greater purposes than your personal temporal success, you will truly be able to accomplish whatever it is that God’s kingdom needs you to do.

You might even move a mountain or two while you’re at it—but they’ll be the mountains that God wants you to move.

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