Increasing in Faith

Faith is an interesting thing. It is central to any belief system, and we know we are to "increase in faith," but how we go about doing that and what grown-up faith looks like can be a bit difficult to define or describe. Even the definition, as given in one place in scripture, seems almost vague: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Growing in faith does not mean we get better at asking God for things until we eventually work our way up to getting everything we ask for. God is not a magic genie, bottled up in Heaven, waiting for us to release him so he can grant us three wishes. Perhaps we do grow in faith by asking for things and realizing if we don't get what we ask for there is quite likely something better for us than what we initially wanted or thought we needed. (Humans are notorious for thinking we know what is best going into every situation, but evidently that is not always the case, since we so often hear the phrase "hindsight is 20/20," which is often applied when we're right in the middle of dealing with the consequences of getting what we thought we wanted.)

It would seem a mature faith might not be about asking for material things at all, but about developing a relationship of trust, whereby we are ready to face problems without worrying about the worst-case scenario outcome. Fear and fretting are enemies of faith, and Jesus repeatedly told his followers not to give in to anxiety. Have you ever solved anything by worry alone? I don't know anyone who has. No one knows what tomorrow will bring for any of us, but the key is not to fear the unknown.

The Message Bible translates Hebrews 11:1 in this way, "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see." Believers have a foundation on which we can rely, one which will not allow our world to crumble or our lives to fall apart. My dad was a carpenter, and many times I heard him say the two most important things when building a house were plenty of insulation and steel in the concrete. That may be about as good of a definition of faith as I know.