Increase Our Faith

 Who wouldn't want stronger faith? Who does not need a more potent faith to cope with day-to-day challenges? In Luke 17:5 the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. Is that a prayer that we also need to pray?

The word increase in that passage means to add, be brought further, given more, and to proceed. For whatever measure of faith, we have today, we could all use more. We need God to add to our faith. To take us further in faith than we have been before. Give us more and more to match the challenges of life. To proceed further in life and kingdom causes than we could ever go in our own strength. 

Muscles grow and are strengthened when they are repeatedly put under stress. That is why track athletes train vigorously running to strengthen their legs and increase their lung capacity. The stress is not pleasant when going through it, but the return is optimal performance in competition. 

The same principle is true for lifting weights. The more stress the muscles endure the bigger they grow and the stronger they become. I teach a weightlifting class. The principle is simple. I do not repeat the same workouts for each class. I design the workouts to continually shock and strain muscles to do something that forces them to work harder. The end result is those muscles grow, and strength grows to lift heavier weights. 

If we really want God to increase our faith, we must be willing to have faith strained and stressed in a series of tests. We do not like these challenges. As we age, we want a more comfortable and secure life. We certainly do not want to have to exercise faith to endure some new challenge. That is the way faith is increased. With each challenge and prayerful belief for God to see us through the challenge, faith increases and grows stronger. In time, we are able to handle greater challenges because our increased faith believes God is able to handle each challenge before us no matter how daunting. We can look back on His past faithfulness to bolster faith for future answers. 

Do we really want the Lord to increase our faith? I certainly do. I am facing numerous faith challenges ahead. I can see them on the horizon. I can doubt and give into fear. Or I can flex that faith God has increased and challenged for the past three decades. Some of these challenges are big. I see no solution in my own resources. I'm not tapping into my resources. I am trusting God to do something miraculously marvelous. My favorite part of that cycle is when I get to sit behind this computer tapping the keys to brag on God or stand behind a pulpit and testify about what He has done. 

O Lord, we plead that you increase our faith. Give us more and more. Help us not shy away from the process to get that increase. May you be glorified by all the answers to prayer.