Jesus censured the disciples’ little faith before the great tempest (Matthew 8:26). Again, when they lacked faith to set a boy free, He said to them, “If you have faith as a mustard seed […] And nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

How can we measure faith? How big must my faith be in order for me to achieve my dreams or conquer the promises of God?

The Lord compared the size of faith to a mustard seed because, among the rabbis, the mustard seed was commonly used to illustrate something very small. The size of a mustard seed is about the diameter of human hair, but a mustard tree grows up to 5 metres tall.

An act of faith pleases God. When Jesus saw a widow place everything she had on the altar, He considered her offering more valuable than all the other offerings put together.

Quantity is not a synonym for quality—especially when it comes to faith. The rich people offered what had been left over, which represented their “leftover” faith.

But the widow gave all she had. In other words, she deposited all her faith in God’s provision; she would depend exclusively on the Almighty.

This is the quality of faith that draws God’s attention and shows its size.

The size of our faith is directly related to how dedicated to God we are, because faith is an attitude of total dependence on God. The more we depend on Him, the bigger our faith is. The less we depend on Him, the smaller our faith is. Unbelief means independence from God. The more independent from God a person is, the more of an unbeliever he becomes.