Increase Our Faith

 Most translations of Luke 11:1 include the phrase, "Lord, teach us to pray." That is not the wording I read this morning from the Holman Christian Standard version. The wording in it is, "Lord, increase our faith." I love that. It made me pause and pray that prayer right on the spot. 

On more than one occasion, Jesus commented that it did not take much faith to see big moves of God. I think all of us would admit we could use some more faith. I know I certainly can. If we want the Lord to increase, build, grow, and multiply our faith, we had better get ready. God will take us on a crash course of faith growth. 

That will involve some real life laboratory experiments. You could call them tests. Each one meant to stretch our prayer lives and examine what we really believe about God and His promises. There is no way around it. If we want our faith to increase, then we are going to face numerous tests along the way to exercise that faith. 

God loves to stretch His children to believe Him for impossible things. You do not have to look any further than Abraham. To be told to uproot from his country and that one day he would be a father of the great nation of Israel seemed pretty outlandish at first. As the years ticked by and and Abraham and Sarah did not have an heir, the pressure started mounting. Finally, the strain caused them to make a foolish choice. To bring an heir through Hagar. Their faith did not increase then. They took matters into their own hands and the nation of Israel has suffered for that choice ever since. 

Romans 4:18-21 describes how Abraham's faith increased during the two and a half decades he had to wait on Isaac to be born. Faith was forged in the fires of this trial. Pay attention to some of the words and phrases in those verses. He believed. In hope against hope he believed. Without becoming weak in faith. Did not waver in unbelief. Fully assured. 

Do those things describe our faith journey? Do they fuel faith filled praying for each of us? When we have tests we often bemoan them. These tests are the proving grounds for God to do extraordinary things that glorify Him. Trouble is we do not often see Him doing extraordinary things. Our faith withers a little more. If this happens long enough, we can get to the point where we may offer the religious duty of prayer, but have a small faith fueling those prayers. The cycle repeats itself. 

We need God to increase our faith and teach us how to really pray. Not repetitious prayers we heard others pray around us. We need to learn the truth of praying the promises of God with conviction. Really believing that God is faithful to what He says. That He is a promise keeper. Abraham believed because God promised he would be the father of a great nation. Abraham just stood in faith on what God said. Year after year and decade after decade. He prayed a long time. He believed a long time. He waited a long time. God came through in the end. With two worn out bodies approaching the century mark. God worked a miracle. 

Do we really want increased faith? We must embrace the challenges. The bigger the challenge the more faith is needed. The more faith exercised the stronger that faith becomes. The stronger the faith the greater answer to praying happens. The more answers that come the more glory God gets. This is the way faith is increased. Then, it starts all over again. We face a new challenge, often bigger than the previous one. This bigger challenge will require a greater level of faith. Our faith is growing and increasing in effectiveness all the while. Before long, we have a long list of testimonies of how God showed Himself faithful. This in turn will help inspire and strengthen the faith of many others. 

God has set some new challenges before me. I am not shrinking back in unbelief, but rather stepping to the plate and taking my prayer cuts with the bat of faith. I am prayerfully swinging for the fence. I am believing God to knock these challenges out of the park. I'm not shying away from these tests. I look at them as the next courses to increase my faith. I hope you will enroll right beside me. All for the glory of God. All to increase our faith.