Grow Your Faith (by Exercising It)

[Build] yourselves up in your most holy faith…

Jude 20

Faith is like a muscle. It grows strong when it is used. If you want to develop a particular muscle, you pull or push against a weight. Faith grows when it has to push against a great burden.

That’s what happens when God allows trials in your life. You lose your job, a relationship ends, or the bottom line of your business is the wrong colour, and suddenly you’re in the gym. This is the moment. God is handing you the weights.

When God allows you to face difficulties, He is calling you to exercise faith. This is how faith grows, by being exercised under pressure. When you find yourself saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to get through this,” this is the moment to exercise your faith in God. This is the moment to walk by faith and not by sight.

You will not grow in faith if every time God puts you in the gym, you just sit there until the session is over. If you don’t pray and you don’t exercise the muscle of faith, when you come out of the trial your faith won’t be any stronger than when you went in. You went through the trial, but you missed the opportunity for growth.

When God puts you in the gym again, ask Him for eyes to see when it happens, and seize the moment. Come to God and say, “This time, I am going to trust you. Strengthen my faith and cause me to grow.”

When was the last time God put you in the gym? Did you exercise the muscle of faith? If so, how? Or do you feel as if you missed an opportunity for growth?