God, in His infinite grace, supplies all we need to live our lives now and throughout eternity. He has redeemed us, given us His own life in Christ and accepted us as His beloved children. All we can offer to Him is our faith and even this is a gift from him. (Ephesians 2:8) Our acceptance of, and response to this faith is what pleases Him. “And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.“ (Hebrews 11:6) In the eyes of the Lord, our faith is said to be of great value. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire,-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (I Peter 1:6-7) Since this is what God values and rewards, we need to apply ourselves to understanding faith and its development in our lives.
C.S. Lewis once remarked that faith is “holding on to what you believe in spite of changing winds.” The winds of times and circumstances may be contrary to our progress. They can blow us off course. At times they may push us backward. Faith, however, is a fixed attitude based on facts. These facts are found in the word of God. The more we are in the word of God, and the more the word of God is in us will our faith keep us steady amidst the winds which hinder our progress. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17 KJV)
Fear, not unbelief, is the enemy of our faith. The fears of today and tomorrow are based upon the uncertainties of life. We only think that we are in control of our lives. When adverse circumstances come our way, fear follows closely behind. Fear looks to ourselves and our own adequacy to handle situations in life. Faith looks to God and His ability. The waves were already present when Peter stepped outside the boat and started walking toward the Lord. His faith kept him on course walking to the Lord. His fear, based on the consideration of his own ability to walk on the waves, overthrew his faith and he began to sink.
In Hebrews 11:1 we read the following. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The KJV uses the term “substance” of things hoped for. A better translation would be “substantiating,” As our eyes substantiate what is visible and and our ears substantiate what is audible, so faith substantiates the reality of things hoped for. In order to increase faith in our everyday lives, the Lord provides four means by which our faith is strengthened. These are problems, people, purpose and perspective.
To grow our faith we need problems. They are God’s way of driving us to Him. When we face problems, we become aware of our lack of resources to handle them. We realize that we have, in fact, dug our own cisterns which do not hold water. Our lives of self sufficiency are exposed in the midst of a problem we cannot solve. The realization that we have, like all mankind, no capacity to govern and care for ourselves brings us to Him. Our response should be, “What are you trying to teach me?”
The second way the Lord provides increase in our faith is to expose us to other people. Sometimes it is because they create a problem for us! He also gives relationships with others because we do not grow in isolation. The Lord uses the wisdom, encouragement, examples and prayers of others to enable our faith to grow. Sometimes this is with an individual as mentioned in Proverbs 27:17. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” The Lord also uses groups of other people to accomplish this objective in our lives. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
The third method the Lord uses is to give us a purpose. We all grow in certain ways when we have a purpose. Each purpose which He gives comes with a pledge on His part to fulfill that purpose in and through our lives. This causes us to look to Him for the needed wisdom, strength and perseverance to see the purpose accomplished. By giving us a purpose, he desires to make evident the fact that He, Himself, is the Source that we need. This is emphasized to us in the passage in Philippians 2:13. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” With each succeeding purpose accomplished in our lives our faith grows as we become increasingly dependent upon Him.
The fourth need which we have that is necessary to the development of our faith is perspective. “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ He replied,’If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you,’” The same year that Evel Knievel tried to drive his motorcycle over the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho was also the year that I tried to get my wife to walk over the bridge at the Royal Gorge in Colorado. My wife had very little faith in the bridge, but made it over safely. Evel Knievel had great faith in his motorcycle but had a crash landing in an unsuccessful attempt to cross the river. It is not the amount of our faith which is important. What matters is what our faith is in. We need to know the size of our God, not the size of our faith. It is not faith that moves mountains, it is God.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation your souls. (I Peter 1:8-9)
“We live by faith, not by sight.” (II Corinthians 5:7)
In Christ, Richard Spann