Five Things God Uses to Grow Your FaithParaugs

PRAYER:

God, I really want to have a relationship with you that is characterized by big faith and complete trust in you.

READING:

Big Faith

I want you to imagine what your life would be like if you had absolute, perfect confidence and assurance that God would walk beside you every day—and that you believed his promise to never leave you or forsake you and to see you through, over, and around everything that comes your way. What if you had that kind of amazing, outside-the-box faith, where you trusted God no matter what happened? That’s where God wants to take you.

God’s will for your life, his heart’s desire, is to draw you into a relationship built around absolute confidence. God wants you to have really big faith in him.

The whole Bible is God wooing men and women back into a faith-based relationship with him. If you were to ask me what God was doing in your life, I would say he was trying to teach you to trust him. More than God wants your obedience or simply knowing a bunch of stuff about him, he wants a relationship characterized by trust and big faith.

In Matthew 8, the centurion trusted Jesus to heal his servant without even having to come to his home, and this is the only time in the Bible where Jesus was amazed by something somebody else did. 

“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith’” (Matthew 8:10).

The only time Jesus was ever astounded in the whole New Testament was because of somebody’s great faith in him. The centurion realized he could put his confidence in Jesus. He thought, You don’t need to come to my house; you just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

As you evaluate your experiences and move into the future, you will notice that there are five faith catalysts God uses to magnify our faith.

1. Practical Teaching
2. Providential Relationships
3. Private Disciplines
4. Personal Ministry
5. Pivotal Circumstances

Being aware of these things prepares us and makes us more sensitive to the ways of God as he seeks to build our faith. The greater the faith, the greater and stronger the relationship, and the more intimacy you will have with your heavenly Father—and that’s his heart’s desire.

In order to grow your faith, God is going to use teaching, relationships, spiritual disciplines, serving others, and tough circumstances. Your faith will get deeper and wider, and you will know him better and trust him more. You will be in an intimate relationship with your heavenly Father.

REFLECTION:

Take a few moments to think of some ways that you’ve seen God grow your faith in the past. What has he used in your life to help you trust him and develop a closer relationship with him?