"So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."" (Luke 17:6)
The Lord Jesus said that even a small amount of faith can do great things. If faith the size of a mustard seed can do such great things, just imagine what a huge amount of faith can do!
Would you want to see your faith increase and enable you to do great things? I know you do. I want it too. And so, let me invite you to take a journey into increasing our faith in the Lord.
What is faith?
According to Hebrews 11:1, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Some try to "mystify" faith, but in reality faith is very simple to understand. Here's what faith is, in simpler terms:
"And [Abraham] believed in the Lord..." (see Genesis 15:6)
Faith is simply believing God, whatever He says. Faith is trusting in God to do as He promised. Faith is obeying God, knowing full well that He will never turn His back on His word and will do as He said.
Now that we've understood what faith really is, we can talk about having a faith that grows more and more.
Faith that grows
So many Christians today want their faith to grow. Just like Jesus' own disciples during His earthly ministry, we keep praying to the Lord,
"Increase our faith." (see Luke 17:5)
It's funny how the Lord responded to His own disciples after they asked that very question:
"So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed..."" (see Luke 17:6)
Instead of giving His disciples a boost in their faith, or instead of responding with a blast of His breath and the laying on of His hands, the Lord Jesus merely responded by telling them what little faith can do.
And perhaps, that's where we can learn to increase our faith.
You see, my friends, many of us want God to do all the heavy lifting for us. We want Him to do all sorts of miracles for us. We want Him to increase our faith in Him to the point that whatever He says we can simply do.
But hasn't it ever occurred to us that it's our choice to believe God? He has said He will do this; do we believe Him?
If faith is as simple as "believing that God will do what He said He will do," maybe it's time for us to realize that our faith grows the more we trust and obey God's Word. After all, Romans 10:17 does tell us,
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So, friends, here are some practical ways we increase our faith.
1) We read and receive the Word of God (Romans 10:17)
2) We believe God's Word and expect Him to do what He tells He will do (Genesis 15:6)
3) We believe God and do what He tells us to do (James 1:22)
In closing
Friends, we must realize that while God gives each of us a measure of faith, we are the ones who will choose whether to believe God or not. If we want our faith to increase, then we should choose to believe His Word.
