I imagine that you and I share this in common: we want a deeper, stronger faith. The problem is we don’t want to go through what it takes to get us there.
Adrian Fehl, our Executive Pastor, reminded me of this the other day. We’re in the midst of raising funds for an Outreach Center called “The Commons” that we’re planning to build on our property sometime in the first half of next year. I was expressing my angst and doubts about God moving in the hearts of our church family, and Adrian said, “The only way we’re going to increase our faith is for God to place us in situations that will grow our faith.”
The famed missionary of the nineteenth century, Hudson Taylor, once wrote, “I know He tries me only to increase my faith.” We don’t always know why God allows us to go through challenging times, but we do know that God can use them to increase our maturity and deepen our faith.
Robert Morgan calls trials and troubles “treadmills for the soul” (The Red Sea Rules, 110). They develop strength and stamina. After the Lord led the Israelites across the Red Sea, Exodus 14 concludes with, “The Lord saved…and Israel saw” (Exodus 14:30).
The Lord saved, and Israel saw. What a great description of God’s provision and our observation. When the Lord delivered, the people took notice. They experienced firsthand “the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31, ESV).
The Israelites faced an impossible scenario—a great sea in front of them and a bloodthirsty army behind them. God’s deliverance developed the Israelites’ strength and stamina. It strengthened their faith for more tribulations to come.
Faith has a cumulative quality to it. We harness and garner it. We grow it and secure it for future times. But the only way to increase our faith is to put ourselves in situations that require it. It’s a spiritual muscle to develop, and if we simply sit back in our “couch-potato Christianity,” our faith will atrophy, leaving us spiritually weak for the impending battles and temptations that are sure to come.
“Without faith, it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV). I wonder if that warning is cast not because God is difficult to please, but because God desires us to trust Him, even in the darkest nights of the soul. Like a father who is pleased when his child runs to him when there is a threat of danger, God is pleased when we turn to Him with our fears, doubts, and anxious thoughts.
Adrian was right. If I want to increase my faith, I need to be in situations where faith is required. We might not like treadmills for the soul, but without them, we’ll never increase our strength and stamina to build up our faith for whatever looms before us.
Whatever you may be facing right now, I pray you turn to our heavenly Father and trust Him, because the Lord loves to respond to faith.
