“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5)

I recently heard a sermon regarding faith and forgiveness that turned my mind toward the many facets of life that are impacted by faith. Before we get into what we do with our faith, we must first understand from whom and when it comes. God gives it to his children as a gift in the new birth.

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Rom 12:3)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal 5:21) Note: As faith is a component of the fruit of the Spirit, it is impossible for faith to act independent of the Spirit.

The faith which resides in the child of God serves as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) As a substance, it as real as any one of our natural senses. By it, we can touch the face of God; see the things of God that we could not see otherwise; feel his glorious presence when bereft of friends; hear his still, small voice in the midst of calamity; and taste heavenly things. This is because faith does not sit dormant within our inner man, but it actively radiates within us to yearn for God and for Heaven. It forms the structure for every effort we take to serve our Lord and his people. It starts and stays as a key ingredient to life, the abundant life!

God finds most pleasing the one who not only believes that He is, but that He is the rewarder of the one who diligently seeks Him. (Heb 11:6) For us to reap the rewards which pleases God to give, we must act on our faith and use it as He requires of us. We cannot let it lie dormant within us and not exercise it, not strengthen it, not increase it! Why? It is because that we cannot please God without faith. Cain could not please God because he sought Him not by faith, but Abel did and God had respect for him and his offering. Abel had faith where Cain had it not.

Faith gives us evidence of God’s existence that nature cannot. Faith not only proves His existence, but it compels us to believe that God is, that is, to acknowledge and accept that He exists as the Eternal God; the creator of heaven and earth; the One, True, and Living God; our Heavenly Father. Faith urges us to see Him as our refuge, our hope, our consolation, and our all-in-all! Faith not only urges us to seek him, but it constrains us to seek him diligently! “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee” (Psa 63:1) How can we seek Him? By that faith which God gives us as a free gift! It is of the weightiest matter that we faithfully seek God each and every day of our lives. In so doing, we increase our faith.

Increasing our faith denotes an activity that requires us to be up and “about [our] Father’s business.” (Luke 2:49) In other words, there is a work involved to increase our faith. We cannot do this without the grace of God, and the key ingredient to making faith operable is love. (Gal 5:6) We must approach this effort to increase our faith in prayer, relying on Him to guide our every step. In fact, I submit to you that there is a recurring, repeatable motion involved with increasing our faith: we pray, apply our faith, use our faith, and thereby increase our faith, which causes us to pray, apply our faith, use our faith, increase our faith, etc. So you see, we continually build upon that which we have already built upon. This requires a constant activity. As the Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:5, we must give all diligence to add to our faith certain ingredients which nourish our faith, make it stronger, increase it, and thus become of greater service. To give “diligence to make our calling and election sure” means to serve our Lord and His people faithfully; for in so doing we strengthen our knowledge of Him and what he has done for us. (2 Peter 1:10)

Sometimes, I feel like the disciples when the Lord told them “Oh ye of little faith.” It oftentimes seems that I lack the faith that so many others exhibit, but we must not be discouraged! We must realize that when we rely on Him, we then see how He has moved in our lives. To see this increases our faith!

Every time we find ourselves in a horrible pit of trouble, he brings us up out it and the miry clay of fear and despair that has us stuck, and sets our feet upon a rock, and establishes our goings. (Psalms 40:2) Our faith is, therefore, renewed, revived, and refreshed. It is strengthened. It has grown. It has increased. We ought, therefore, to take the time to consider how God via our God-given faith has moved us in wondrous ways that we otherwise would not have gone, and how it has guided us through so many terrible things that we thought impossible otherwise to overcome.

Though not exhaustive, the following list shows some of the good things that happen when we apply faith in our lives:

• gets us up each morning (Lam 3:23)
• gets us through the day’s difficulties (Rom 5:3-4)
• allows us to take each step in life (I Cor 5:7)
• gets us through the valleys (Psa 23:4)
• gets us through depression (Lam 3:19-23 – can’t have hope without faith)
• carries through each trial (1 Pet 1:7)
• points our eyes Heaven-ward (Heb 9:28 – can’t look up without faith)
• helps us to forgive (Luke 17:1-6)
• shows us our unworthiness in ourselves and our worthiness in Him (Mat 15:21-28)
• increases our joys (Phl 1:25)
• manifests our love (Eph 6:22)
• brings us peace (Rom 5:1)
• moves our mountains (Mat 17:20 – sometimes we are the “mountain” that needs to be removed)
• overcomes our fears (2 Cor 1:9)
• allows us to rest on the promises of God (Rom 4:20)
• helps us to serve others (Phl 2:17, Rev 2:19)
• allows us to go to bed rejoicing that we have walked with God today (Phl 1:27)

How much more could be added to this list? It is as the Queen of Sheba exclaimed to King Solomon after she witnessed his power and glory, “The half was not told me!” (1 Kings 10:7) I, too, feel as if I have just scratched the surface of how faith impacts our daily lives. Lord, increase our faith!