Faith is one of the greatest and most needed gifts of God. Therefore, you can seek more faith, as did the father who asked Jesus, right before Jesus healed his son, “I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24). You can always ask Christ to increase your faith, as did the Apostles: “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you’” (Luke 17:5-6).
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, simply: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). And as I have written:
Faith is a God-made bridge
From your heart to heaven,
A span immovable, indestructible.
Take the risk and venture out;
Not looking down but straight ahead
Toward God’s clouded presence.
Let your yearning heart energize you
To walk to the One who awaits you,
Without fear of falling or failure.
Faith is a hidden knowledge
Of what is to come,
A heavenly manna to daily feed your heart.
Believe in, trust that veiled knowledge.
Faith is the inexplicable conviction
That regardless of short-term outcomes,
All will be well, eternally.
Faith will never fail you;
If you but listen to it,
It will make you right with God;
In truth, faith is a place
Of right standing with God.
And when you are right with God,
Fear is reduced to a nuisance,
Calling at you from below,
But never able to touch God’s hallowed bridge.
I invite you to engage in a breath prayer for faith. Sitting comfortably in a straight-back chair, with both feet on the ground, engage in “belly-breathing.” With each breath, breathe in God’s gift of faith, which always surrounds you as the atmosphere of heaven; and in yielding response, breathe out trust. Continue breathing in ever greater faith and exhaling ever greater trust. Let your growing faith convict your heart that all will indeed be well, eternally.
(Contact Hal Green, Ph.D., at drhalgreen@gmail.com.)
