How to increase your faith

A remarkable story occurs in Luke 7 that helps us understand how to increase our faith. There was a man who was a centurion. That means he was a Roman soldier supervising a hundred other soldiers. He was not a Jew. He was not a disciple of Jesus. But he sought Jesus for the healing of a servant who was ready to die. His experience is a powerful lesson for us.

1. He was not caught up in religion or some form of rituals. He was in a crisis and needed divine help. Big or little, a Christian will have some type of faith crisis frequently. We cannot expect our faith to increase at the time the crisis occurs. We must be practicing a special kind of trust as a companion of Jesus.
2. He heard about Jesus. This means he had head knowledge but progressed to a state of faith that resulted in the servant’s healing. It does us no good to know about Jesus. Many people know of him, but that knowledge has little effect on the spiritual life.(verse 3) That is why we must see our relationship with Jesus as personal.
3. Paul said in the book of Colossians, “as you have therefore received Christ Jesus so walk ye in him.” The faith that we had to accept Christ as Savior must be a daily practical experience that grows. Faith that does not grow in stymied.
4. He reached out to Jesus with a specific request. If we are to pray in faith, it must be around identifiable and stated concerns. Generalized prayers do little good.
5. The centurion had a reputation for supporting God’s work in the nation. From whatever level it is, we must have a history of serving God to the best of our ability. We cannot expect God to intervene in our lives if we have not had active interaction with him.
6. The man possessed unusual humility. He took the next step of faith by believing Jesus had sufficient power of healing just by saying it whether he was present with the servant are not. The increase of our faith comes from honoring Jesus while not expecting him to automatically fulfill our requests.
7. The leap of faith that this man took was so remarkable to Jesus that our Savior recognized him as having more faith than all of those who were Israelites. There comes a time and place in which we must take our thoughts off of the concern and onto the Lord who is the solution to our concerns.
8. God may allow us to be in a state of crisis as a learning experience and growing experience so that our devotion to him becomes more profound. The servant was at death’s door yet the faith the man had combined with the power of Christ changed everything. We must keep our thoughts clearly on Jesus.
9. Practicing an increase of faith regularly also includes concerns for other people. We must be touched in our hearts for the issues of others that we mentioned in our prayers. Rattling off their names before God is an exercise in futility. When God does answer our faith, we will be able to recognize it because of having a specific prayer request. Then we praise and thank Jesus even more which will increase our faith.

Every time we trust God it will be a step in a positive direction for increased faith. Use every opportunity to praise him for even the smallest matter. For instance, if you lose your car keys and ask him to help you, when you do find them pause to offer praise and thanks. Every time something happens praise God. The devil will try to convince you that it was simply a coincidence. That is not true! God is with you in the smallest and in the largest concerns that you have. If you fall and bump your head but are not injured, offer thanks that you were not injured. Throughout the day look for things to express your praise and thanks to him. The more you concentrate on Jesus the more your faith will increase. Avoid only talking to him on your schedule. The centurion in this story submitted himself to the schedule of Jesus recognizing that the Lord had the higher priority. Increasing our faith is not like blowing up a balloon. It is more like climbing a ladder. We reach up to Christ for the one step and then another and then another. That’s what Paul meant when he said as you have received Christ. We start with the faith to be saved and take more and more steps as we get closer and closer to a stronger faith.