MAY 4, 2022

3 Ways to Increase Your Faith

LISTEN HERE

Podcast Google Spotify

Faith is a funny thing.

If you were to ask 10 different people what faith is or what faith looks like to them, you would probably get 10 different answers. Some might say it’s a blind trust. Others would say it’s trust based on evidence; but what does the Bible say about faith, and how can you increase your faith in God?

Here are three ways that you can increase your faith in God:

  • By hearing the Word of God
  • By remembering what God has done for you
  • By asking God to help you increase your faith in Him

Why Do You Need to Increase Your Faith?

When I think about faith, I think of what happened in Daniel 3:1-30.

To give you some context, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, decided to set up a siege against Jerusalem, waging war on the city. Nebuchadnezzar won this war and then ordered a few of the young men of Israel to be brought back to Babylon. Among these young men were four who are specifically named: Daniel (of the lions’ den), Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

They are all brought to Babylon and given new names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego respectively. Those names should seem a bit more familiar now! Anyways, their stay in Babylon goes relatively smoothly until Daniel 3, which is where our story of interest lies about faith.

You can go read it for yourself in Daniel 3, but I’ll summarize it here since it’s a long chapter and can get mildly repetitive.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, decides to set up a golden image. He gathers all the various officials and people of importance in the land to dedicate the image and he declares to the people that whenever they hear the sound of instruments playing, they should fall and worship the golden image immediately.

Now, you can see how this would be a problem for the young men from Israel who have placed their faith in God. After all, Yahweh, the God of Israel, was a jealous God and had declared that the Israelites shall not worship any other gods or bow down to any idols (Exodus 20:3-4).

In fact, it didn’t take long for them to be brought before the king for not following the orders. It is there that Nebuchadnezzar gives them another chance to follow what he has decreed. Here’s what he says to them:

Now if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?

Daniel 3:15

Hm. Talk about arrogance, huh?

How would you respond to such a threat? Would you respond with faith? Let’s see how they respond:

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Daniel 3:16-18

Wow. What faith! In the face of a burning fire, they not only have built up enough faith to refuse, but they go as far as to say that even if God does not save them, they will still not bow down to other gods. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that I would have had the same response if I were in that situation.

See, faith is not trusting in God when things are going well. Faith is not trusting in God and leaning on Him only when you can clearly see Him working.

Faith is trusting God even when He doesn’t save you or give you what you want.

Faith is trusting God because He knows better:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

This is why we need to build up our faith. Let’s face it; life is tough. If we’re going to have faith in God that He is doing something good during the hardest times, we need to build up our faith in Him now so that when those hard times come, we are unshakable.

Even if you’re in a hard time right now, there is no better time than now to increase your faith. So…

How can you increase your faith in God?

The three ways I am going to give you are not only simple but effective. Let’s jump right into it.

1. Increase your faith by hearing and reading the Word of God

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17

Faith comes from hearing the word of God. How does this work?

Why do parents teach their kids not to trust strangers? Why is STRANGER DANGER such a big thing?

It’s because you shouldn’t trust someone you don’t know, right? When you don’t know someone, you don’t know what their intentions are, you don’t know whether they intend to do you harm or not, and you don’t know what they are like.

The same thing goes for God.

If we don’t know God, we are never going to trust Him because we have no idea if He’s even trustworthy!

Yet, by hearing and reading the Word of God, we get to know Him through the pages of the Bible. We get to know what He is like, how He interacts with His people, and what He expects from us in return. We get to know His intentions for us, whether He wants to harm us, and who He is at His core.

When we begin to know God, we can begin to trust Him and have faith in Him in every situation.

2. Increase your faith by remembering what God has done

Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually. Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from His mouth.

1 Chronicles 16:11-12

A great way to build up your faith in God is by taking the time to remember the things that He has done for you.

Throughout the Old Testament, we see the leaders of the Israelites encouraging the nation to remember what God has done for them; to remember that He brought them out of slavery in Egypt and that He has won many battles on their behalf.

Why is this so important?

Think about it: how have you built up faith and trust in your closest friends?

I would guess that over time, they have proven to be faithful, and you have seen them be trustworthy people.

The same is true of God.

When you remember what God has done for you and how He has brought you through so many tough times, your faith in Him increases because He has saved you before; He can do it again.

Otherwise, you easily can slip into a ‘What has God done for me lately?’ kind of attitude. This attitude will never increase your faith in God.

Instead, remembering what God has done and is currently doing in our lives builds up trust and faith that He will do it again.

3. Increase your faith by asking God to build up faith in you

Did you know that you can simply ask God to increase your faith?

In the Gospel of Mark, we see a father coming to Jesus with his demon-possessed son, desiring him to be healed. Check out what happens:

They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.

But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:20-24

Jesus goes on to heal the boy, but that isn’t what I want to focus on. Instead, look at the father’s response to what Jesus says: “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

I believe that all of us are like this man. We have some faith, but we don’t have as much faith as we would like to have, nor as much as we know that we should. However, we, like this man, can simply ask God for help.

Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?

Matthew 7:9-11

God gives good gifts to those who ask Him for them. We know from Scripture that God desires for us to have faith; therefore, God will give you faith and help you build your faith in Him if you ask Him to.

So then…

How can you increase your faith in God?

  1. By hearing the Word of God
  2. By remembering what God has done for you
  3. By asking God to help you increase your faith in Him

There is no better time than today to start.

Spend time with God today and begin to increase your faith in Him.

If you’re interested in reading more on the topic of increasing your faith, here are a couple more resources on the subject:

https://inspiringtips.com/ways-to-increase-your-faith-in-god/
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/do-you-want-your-faith-to-grow
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jesus-always-bigger-faith/