Three Things I've Learned About Developing Faith- November 4, 2016

By personality, I am not an individual who goes to the Lord often and asks’ Him to increase my faith. In the early part of my walk, growing in faith was not something that was attractive to me. I wanted more knowledge, a deeper prayer life, to experience the Holy Spirit in worship- but faith was not something I often asked the Lord for. To be honest, I think it is because in a lot of ways I didn’t feel like I needed faith. I believed I was the type of woman who trusted God easily and for the most part, I did and I still do. I trust that God will open doors for me, I trust that God will assist me through the process of completing my degree. I used to feel that trusting God was easy, until he begin to put things in my life that were harder to trust Him for: like growth in my business, expansion in my family’s ministry, healing in my body, and money. Especially money.

 I’m a hard worker and I have often prided myself on my hard work taking me where I desire to go. Now don’t get me wrong, hard work is Biblical. The Bible is very explicit that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). We have to work for and prepare for what we pray for. However, in some ways I was more self-reliant on my hard work taking me where I wanted to go than God reliant. But at some point in every Christian’s walk, we experience challenges and our faith grows through trials. In the process of God growing my faith, I’ve learned a myriad of things. Here are three simple tips on how to grow your faith.

1.      Faith come by hearing: The Bible says that “faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:17).

Meaning we develop our faith by the consistent hearing of God’s word. If you are not consistently indulging in the word, either by reading, watching or listening to it, your faith is not growing.

2.      Be prepared to grow through challenges: You develop faith by being challenged. If everything was easy breezy we would have no need to trust God right? That being said, you have to expect that you are going to go through various things that will cause you to have to exercise your faith muscles. Maybe it’s being single at 35 and wondering where your Boaz is. Maybe it’s the loss of a best friend to cancer. Maybe it’s a rough patch in a relationship. Maybe it’s a decision you made out of obedience to God that seems as though it is going haywire. Whatever it is, faith is developed out of the difficult parts and you have to be prepared for that.

3.      You must be patient to see the result (and you have to be willing to trust the result): Seeing the fruit of faith takes patience. Sometimes a few moments, sometimes a lifetime. And while I have yet to meet a person who loves developing patience, it is a vital part of the faith component.

Developing faith is simple, but certainly not easy. It takes humility, trust and a lot of patience. But the result of waiting until you see something blossom through in faith is sure to be nothing short of remarkable.

XOXO,

Myah Lonye’