Growing Faith

Growing Faith

“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20, KJV).

The first thought that comes to mind when we read this verse is the small amount of faith that we need before we can see God move in our lives. Jesus pointed out that mustard seeds were smaller than all other seeds (Matthew 13:31), yet they produced such a large herbal plant that He could easily call it a tree.

Jesus mentioned mustard seeds four times in the Bible, and in three of those cases He emphasized their ability to grow into large plants. Since a seed’s job is to grow, and we see here that the mustard seed symbolizes our faith, we can draw the following conclusion: a Christian’s faith should grow. It should not remain a tiny mustard seed. Rather, our faith should grow so that the birds of the air can nest in it (Matthew 13:32).

In other words, God wants your faith to grow in such a way that it can become a blessing to others. First Corinthians 12:9 indicates that there is a gift of faith. Obviously, this is not to be confused with saving faith or the faith that all believers have, since no believer has all the gifts. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are distributed for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). This suggests that the gift of faith is a measure of great faith, so that the person with the gift is able to impart faith to other believers or use his or her faith to strengthen others.

How do we develop such faith? Although not all believers will receive the gift of faith, we can all expect to develop a greater measure of faith which will benefit our own relationship with God and our ministry to others.

There are several things we can do to promote faith development. First, we can spend time in prayer and fasting. Immediately after Jesus compared faith with a mustard seed, He mentioned that certain kinds of demons only come out through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). However, since He indicated that faith removes mountains and casts out demons, it is obvious that He was linking prayer and fasting with growth in faith.

As we pray, we exercise our faith in a most simple way. We are essentially telling God that we trust Him to meet our needs. Indeed, we should learn to cast all our cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

In fact, we should also pray for greater faith. The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith (Luke 17:5), and one man even told Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24, NASB). Since even saving faith is a gift from God that we must choose to accept, we should be eager to ask Him to increase our faith.

Prayer tends to increase our faith in several ways. As we spend time with God, we develop an intimate knowledge of Him. As the Holy Spirit works in our life through prayer, we come to know God most personally, not merely as an abstract concept. Our faith grows further as we see God answering our prayers and we behold His power in our lives.

Fasting helps also. In the Bible, people fasted for different reasons, such as mourning, confession of sin (1 Samuel 7:6), seeking divine favor (Ezra 8:21–23), and seeking God’s direction (Acts 13:3). One common link among several of these is the desire to get closer to God. By forsaking physical needs (food), we devote ourselves to pursuing fulfillment of our spiritual needs.

While biblical fasting emphasizes abstaining from food, the main emphasis is actually on self-denial. Isaiah 58 shows that God is more concerned with our desire to delight in Him than in merely going through the motions of abstaining from food. When I fast, I place a greater emphasis on prayer. The time I would otherwise spend eating is spent praying. I usually avoid any pleasure besides prayer, worship or reading the Bible. Perhaps you may consider a fast from television, music, the Internet, or anything else that takes up your time.

As we fast, we build up “spiritual muscles” that enable us to trust God for bigger things.

A very important tool for building faith is the Bible. We should spend quality time in God’s Word. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ. Therefore, as we immerse ourselves in God’s Word and accept it as His Word to us, our faith grows.

It is true that our faith grows through Scripture reading just because we learn more about God. We also see more areas where we can trust God, and areas of our lives that we need to commit to Him. However, there is a spiritual dynamic here as well, one that defies human explanation. Jesus tells us that the words He spoke are spirit and life (John 6:33). His words, and all of God’s Words in Scripture, impart spirit and life to us. As we read, listen to, and meditate upon God’s Word, spirit and life enter us just as surely as oxygen enters us as we breathe.

Finally, our faith grows as we fellowship with one another. In Romans 1:12, Paul expressed the desire “that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” We should not come to church just so that we can say we did our religious duty. Neither should we come to merely see the show, listen to the music and hear the message (as if we were attending a movie). We should come to build each other up, to encourage one another, and to share our faith with others. As every person shares how God has blessed him or her, everybody’s faith grows. We feed on each other’s faith. Just as one child’s meal could multiply to feed a multitude (John 6:1–14), one person’s faith multiplies to feed an entire congregation.

For this reason, we should not limit fellowship only to official church activities. While we fellowship with our church family at worship services, Bible studies, and prayer meetings, we should also look for opportunities to spend time with our brethren in casual social settings. Meeting for lunch, getting together to see a movie or watch a sporting event together, or any kind of activity can provide opportunities to encourage one another.

We should not look at faith as an object that we might own but never see growth in. Faith is a dynamic part of the inner man that can and should grow. We ought not view our faith as a something that God has given us and we cannot expect more. Faith is a spiritual muscle; just like our physical muscles develop more strength and flexibility as we exercise them, our faith develops strength, flexibility and versatility as we exercise it properly.