Building Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please God. You can obey God. You can do the right thing and still not be pleasing God because you’re not doing it in faith. How can I build my faith? I can pray and ask God to increase my faith. But how does God build my faith?

Here’s one secret. And it’s not really something you’re real excited about when you first hear it. But the truth is God builds your faith and my faith by testing it. He builds our faith by putting it to the test, by trying it. Faith is like a muscle and when it’s stretched and it’s pulled, then it develops. When you test your muscles against weights then your muscles develop. And your faith develops as it is tested.

Did you realize that God is testing you every moment of your life? Every day you have faith-building opportunities. The problem is most of us don’t recognize them when they’re there. We flunk the test because we don’t even realize it is a test and that God is trying to help us grow.

These are the four most common ways that God tests and builds our faith. You’ll probably get tested on every one of them this week.

1. God tests our faith through difficulties.

That’s trials, problems, pressures, tough circumstances, all the stresses of life. Nothing comes into your life without God’s permission. The bad that happens is a result of our own doing (4:79), but it’s in God’s control. There are no accidents.

For example, Jonah had a custom made problem. It just swallowed him up and got his attention. Sometimes God creates problems that swallow us up. And we have to turn to God.

[21:87] And Zan-Noon (Jonah) the one with an N in his name) abandoned his mission in protest, thinking that we could not control him. He ended up imploring from the darkness (of the big fish’s belly ) “ There is no god other than You. Be You glorified. I have committed a gross sin.” 

Also [Jonah 2:7] the Bible says, "When I lost all I once again turned my thoughts to God."

God uses these kinds of things to test our faith. If life were easy then it wouldn’t require faith. So what should I do when I’m going through difficulties? How should I respond?

When the problems come, turn to God. When you face trials of any kind, remember that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. He says when you’ve got a test, trust God. In fact He says, rejoice (9:111). Thank God. Praise God (8:45). Why? Because I know that God is with me. God has a plan for me. He has a purpose for my life and He’s going to help me through it. God’s purpose is greater than the pain or the problem or the challenge I’m going through right now.

This is the first lesson. If I want to learn to live by faith I must learn to rejoice continually. He doesn’t say be thankful for the problem; just be thankful in the problem. I must learn to rejoice in the situation continually if I’m going to learn to live and trust in Him. God makes it up to the believers.

2. God tests our faith through commands.

When I have a command and it seems like I can’t do it, then the issue at that moment is:  Who am I going to believe? Who is it I’m going to trust? Am I going to believe what God says to do or am I going to believe what I think is right to do? All of the promises, all of the commands are there to test us. Some of

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