How to increase your faith

If I can just use this illustration, it's sort of like going to the gym. The only way to build your muscles is to exercise them, to work out, lift weights. If you're not going to put anything into it, you can't expect to get anything out of it.

So if you're going to build muscle, right, you need to exercise your muscles. So if you want to grow your faith, you need to exercise your faith. You must put something in, you must believe, you must confess.

Faith must be a living faith. You must do what Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And then when hard times come, our faith is tried. And when our faith is tested and we come through the trial with our faith intact, that's how our faith grows.

The disciples go from being a group of 12 guys who are constantly saying and doing the wrong thing, and they're learning, right? They're learning. But after the resurrection, after they see the risen Lord, more importantly, after they are filled with the Holy Spirit, because ultimately you can't have faith without the work of the Holy Spirit.

But after they receive the filling of the Spirit, and after their faith is tested, the disciples are completely transformed. So hopefully we are in the process of being transformed. But in order to do that, our faith must be tested.

We must be tried. And that's how our faith is increased. James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

We have a man in our church that anytime something bad happens, or there's a trial, or someone is sick, you can count on him to remind everybody that we need to count it all joy. Well, what's being said when James says count it all joy, and it's true, by the way, you do need to count it all joy, but what's he saying?

It's not that it's joyful to go through hardships, but you need to count it all joy. Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So, the joy that was set before him was what? For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Well, how could that have been joyful? Well, it says he despised the shame, but he endured the cross because he knew that was God's will.

He was being obedient to the Father. He endured the cross, and because he did that, God the Father has given him the name which is above every name. So it is with us when we face great trials, when our faith is tested, when it's exercised.

It can be difficult, but our faith and the testing of our faith, we need to count it all joy because that is what brings the blessing of God. When a person goes through trials, it's true, they either get bitter or they get better.

Something that I've noticed throughout the years when somebody maybe they get baptized, they make a profession of faith, or maybe it's somebody who's been a Christian a while but they've never really committed themselves fully.

Somebody when they will say, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to make sure and be determined that I'm going to be in church every Sunday, and I'm going to do the right thing. As soon as a person makes that commitment, immediately testings and trials show up immediately.

It's almost a guarantee. Something will happen. If you are kind of one of these, you know, once a month type of church attenders, if you say, okay, I'm going to be there every Sunday, you can pretty much guarantee something bad is going to happen on Sunday morning that's going to make you feel like not going or make it difficult for you to go.

You know, it happens. It's one of those trials, whether it comes from the devil or God is testing you, or I don't know what it is. I don't know what's going on in the spiritual realm exactly. But I know that when people get serious about their faith, that's pretty much a guarantee trials are going to pop up.

So what's happening in that moment? You know, it's going to matter. How do you respond? If you endure the trial and you come out the other end, faithful with your faith intact, and it's going to be even stronger, and that's where the real blessings are.

That's where the growth is. So when a person goes through trials, they either get bitter and they'll fall away and things will get worse, and that happens too, or they get better, but no pain, no gain.

It's back to the gym illustration. If you don't put something in, you're not going to get something out.