I want to talk a minute to any of you who feels powerless or forgotten or just not good enough because of unfulfilled desires and unmet deep needs.

Maybe you don’t have those things that others do, so you are “left out of the club” when it comes to certain parties or opportunities, while the “haves” seem to be moving toward a bigger and better future.

It’s easy to feel less-than when you keep focusing on your lack. If we were to look at your lack list, it might include one or several of the following areas of unmet needs/desires:

  • A spouse
  • Kids
  • A job
  • Good health
  • A dependable car
  • Friends to hang out with
  • A house that you own

Sometimes the longer the list of “have-nots” you concentrate on the more powerless you can feel.

After running through my own “have-not” list recently, I came to the conclusion that my life seemed a bit bare. But when I professed to God, Lord, all I have is You – and then I thought for a minute – and a mustard seed of faith, something deep inside me recalled that verse in the Bible that talks about the powerfulness of this incredibly small seed when breathed on by God.

“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.” (Matthew 17:20b, NIV).

Those of us who feel that we are the “have-nots” aren’t powerless after all!

It doesn’t take owning a car or a home or being able to run marathons or having political clout or a wonderful spouse or fabulous children that ultimately enables you to change the daily landscape of your  life.

Power to change your surroundings, power to put down the enemy, power to remove obstacles – these are done through the unseen essence of your growing faith when put into practice. When you speak to your “mountain” and combine those words with a faith in Jesus Christ, then that mountain – whatever that opposition or hard place is – will crumble.

Let’s make it a practice to define ourselves not by any trappings of success, by what we do or don’t have, but rather by the realization that with God in our lives, we have everything we need to overcome.

– Laura J. Bagby

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