5 Ways to Grow Your Faith During Hard Times
Knowing how to increase your faith during hard times will help you find much needed strength, hope and peace.
Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I had enough faith to make it through this trial”? Oftentimes when you’re going through something hard, you start to question your faith. You feel like you don’t have enough faith. You need to do something to strengthen your faith.
Today I want to talk about five ways that you can increase your faith. So many times in my own life, I have just thought, man, I am not strong enough to make it through this hard thing. I felt like that when I was walking through abuse. I felt like that when my dad died, walking through miscarriages, financial struggles, you name it.
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There has always been a point where I have thought to myself, I don’t have enough faith for this. And I thought this was such an important topic that I wanted to dig deep into it because I bet you can relate to this question: do you need more faith?
Is the problem that when you’re walking through hard things you feel like you can’t take anymore? You don’t have any hope? Is the problem that you don’t have enough faith? Well, Jesus speaks about this in scripture, and so I want to go there first.
A little context, the disciples are trying to cast out and deliver this little boy. His father brings him to the disciples and tells them that he’s sick, and he falls in the fire and he falls in the water and all these things are happening.
This little boy is being possessed and oppressed by a demon and they can’t seem to cast it out. So they take the little boy to Jesus and he takes care of it. In Matthew 17:19, the disciples come to Jesus privately and ask why they couldn’t drive it out.
Verse 20, “and he [Jesus] said to them, because of the littleness of your faith, for truly, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.”
The disciples are trying to figure out why they weren’t able to help this little boy and his father and Jesus says, well, your faith is too small. And I thought, wow, isn’t that a word for us today? Lord? Why am I struggling to keep a good attitude, to be encouraging, to be careful?
What’s coming out of my mouth when I’m walking through this hard time? Well, is it because my faith is too little? The interesting thing that I thought here, it’s twofold. In verse 20, we hear Jesus tell them that their faith was too small but then he also says something that seems a little contradictory.
He tells them that they actually don’t need a lot of faith. He says they only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed. I don’t know if you’ve seen an actual mustard seed but it’s itty bitty. It’s so teeny. It’s a little grain of almost nothing.
Jesus says here that’s all you need to move mountains. To have nothing be impossible for you all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed. I want to ask you this question: is it that you don’t have enough faith or are you just not making use of the faith that you have?
You don’t have to have big faith. Our God is big and he can do big things, and all we need is a teeny tiny grain of faith for God to do what he wants to do. You don’t need a ton of faith, but you do need to have some faith. And there are some practical things that you can do to increase your faith and grow in this area.
How to Increase Your Faith Tip #1: Prayer
The first thing that I want to talk about is prayer. Prayer is something that I’m super passionate about. It’s something that I talk about and I teach about a lot. It’s so important to have a deep and consistent prayer life. Talking to God and sharing with him what’s going on, what you feel, what you want, and what you need is important.
So is listening for his response and for what he wants to say to you is going to help you keep your situation in proper perspective. To help you keep your eyes on God. He’s where your help comes from. The disciples didn’t sit there and twiddle their thumbs going, oh no, I guess we can’t help you.
No, they took that father and that son to Jesus because he was the answer and he’s still the answer for you no matter what you’re going through today. Prayer is of the utmost importance when you want to build your faith.
If your faith feels weak, it’s usually an indication of a disconnect or a lack of connection with God. And prayer is like an instant automatic connection. It’s a great way to plug back in and tap back into the Lord and say, “Hey, I need some of your strength. I need some hope. Help me out here in this situation.”
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How to Increase Your Faith Tip #2: Mediate on Scripture
The second thing is meditation. I’m not talking about this emptying your mind, sitting with your legs crossed, chanting some random symbol or whatever. In scripture, we see admonishments and commands to meditate on the things of God.
To meditate on the word, to think about these things over and over and over again. Something that often robs you of your faith is your emotions. Your nerves, being anxious, and worried about the things that you have no control over.
The disciples are often freaking out because they don’t know what to do. When you do that, it can make you feel like your faith isn’t strong enough. You need to learn to meditate, renew your mind with scripture, memorize scripture, quote scripture, and think about God’s word as you go throughout your day.
That’s going to help you stay calm.
How to Increase Your Faith Tip #3: Talk About Your Journey
So the third way to increase our faith is to speak and talk about your pain and your struggles. Current culture really struggles with community and being vulnerable and open about your pain and your struggles.
Nobody has it all together. Nobody has the perfect life. We rob ourselves of community, closeness, encouragement, and building our faith together when we don’t share our struggles. When you share with somebody, you give them the chance to go, oh, me too. That’s how we know that we’re not alone.
Speaking about what you’re going through, and sharing that with somebody close to you is a great way to build your faith because they probably have gone through something similar to what you’re going through before and they can encourage you, lift you up, and pray for you as you’re walking through your hard times.
How to Increase Your Faith Tip #4: Spend Time in Scripture
The fourth thing is just spending time in the word. This is so important. God’s word is where your strength comes from, where you learn to trust God, and it’s the foundation of your faith. When you are reading your Bible, when you are studying your Bible, you are learning who God is, what his character says, what his promises are, and what that means to you.
The more that you know about God, the easier it is to trust him. And that’s what faith is. You are trusting that God’s going to do what he says he’s going to do.
How to Increase Your Faith Tip #5: Exercise Your Faith
The fifth way to increase your faith is to use your faith. It’s like a muscle. You have to use it. The more that you use it, the stronger you’ll feel. So trust God. Just like if you were on a fitness journey. You wouldn’t start at two pounds and 10 years later still be at two pounds.
Eventually, your muscles would change and adapt, and you would have to pick up something heavier and heavier and heavier. The more that you work on that muscle the more burden that you’re able to bear. The same thing goes for your faith.
When you trust God, exercise your faith, and stand firm on what you know to be true about God you are building your faith. You know that God did it this time and he’ll do it again. If he’s in it those two times, he’s going to do it a third time.
You’re able to keep your eyes focused on what you know to be true about God. And that’s a great way to build your faith.
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This 5 things will help you learn how to increase your faith during hard times.
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