You will have more faith if you rely on the great reservoir of faith: Jesus.
Continued from last week May 2
How strong is your desire to have more faith? In the previous two posts we saw that the strength of faith largely depends on one’s choices and actions. God has given us means to faith that we must employ. Here are two more means to faith.
The faith and testimonies of other Christians
Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome that he looked forward to coming there someday so that “we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Romans 1:12).
Who you associate with significantly affects your level of faith. Even the apostle Paul—who had seen Jesus!—felt it.
We must be aware we associate with others not only in person, but also through what we read, watch, and listen to. (One of the surest ways not to have faith is to eat at the table of secular news media.)
“Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33), and unbelieving company ruins good faith. When unbelief, doubt, and skepticism are in the air, they can linger in your heart when you walk out the door or turn off the screen. But when you associate with people of faith, faith lingers and abides and overcomes.
During the first year or two of the coronavirus situation, when fear and doubt were everywhere, I made it a point regularly to tune in to a Zoom call for my fellow pastors in Illinois because the people on that call were people of faith, courage, and hope. They told stories of how God was helping them and their church. They trusted God even when tough things were happening. And they shared needs and prayed with faith. Invariably when those calls ended, my faith was stronger.
The presence of God within
Writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, the apostle Paul referred to “the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14). Paul is not speaking here about Jesus as the object of one’s faith, but rather as the source of faith. He is saying that Jesus is an infinite reservoir of faith and love, from which we can draw faith.
It is from our union with Christ, from his living within us, that we have faith. Elsewhere Paul wrote, “Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
So your faith ceiling ultimately does not depend on you, but on the faith ceiling of Jesus. In Christ Jesus is infinite faith, and he will supply faith in your soul as you learn to rely on him.
Learning to draw faith from Jesus within means regularly asking him for it. It means learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit at all times, choosing to stay in step with him by expressing the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). It means enhancing the awareness of his presence by continual prayer, worship, and thanksgiving.
And it means keeping his words in mind by reading, memorizing, and meditating on Scripture, for the Lord’s Word and presence are profoundly connected. It means receiving Communion and gathering with God’s people weekly, for Jesus is present in both. It means meditating on the works, words, and person of Jesus revealed in the four Gospels, for Jesus the person, in mind, in view, in action, inspires faith. We learn faith in the Father from his faith in the Father.
Faith is circular. You need to receive faith from Jesus to have faith, and you need to have faith to receive faith. When you get into the flow of faith, it keeps growing. Unfortunately the reverse is also true. So step into the flow that is going in the right direction, wholeheartedly, choosing to believe, and your faith will keep growing. There is no end to the faith that is in the reservoir named Jesus.
Next week we conclude the means to faith with the most important of all: God’s Word
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)