Often one hears, “I need more faith.” They pray for more faith; they constantly are seeking more faith. They quote Luke 17:5, “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” They also quote Matthew 17:20, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
The idea behind these verses in their mind and understanding is, “We need more faith, so we can heal the sick, preach the gospel, raise the dead, etc.” I have heard this many times. But this IS wrong.
Faith is simply “believing God.” A very simple concept. It involves trust. The opposite is doubt. Consider the following illustrations.
Faith and doubt are on a balance. They are opposites. If we have a lot of faith, we have less doubt. If we have a lot of doubt, we have less faith.
An example, if I earn my money to pay my bills and have a little left over for fun, I need a certain amount of money. If the work does not come in, or I am laid off part time, or am sick, or any other situation that upsets our income, then we are stressed. The Christian in such an example can have faith, “God will take care of my needs,” or “I don’t know what is going to happen, I have to do everything I can to have enough money.” It may fall some where in between.
If we pray for God to increase our faith, He might very well put us in an uncomfortable situation and show that He can provide.
Faith is not for the purpose of doing miracles; it is a simple trusting in God to meet our needs.
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