Faith? Know Faith? No Faith? How do you grow that seed of faith inside of you? The moment I realized I had no faith was a turning point in my relationship with God.  It was the first time I was honest-truly honest, with both God and myself. Honesty in a relationship creates a healthier relationship, as long as the problems brought up are dealt with. The same goes with our relationship with God.

God is big enough to handle our tears, our questions of why, and anger. But we can’t stop there. I know too many Christians who stay in their anger with God. You have to move on. You have to work through those emotions. And through that work, our faith grows.

How do you work out your faith? How do you work through the crisis that brought you to the point that you realize you have no faith?

I have learned I need to first read the Bible. Yep, that age old admonition. There came a crisis in my own life where my family was deeply hurt by a pastor in the church. When confronted and the elders told of this man’s actions, nothing was done about it. I was so mad and asked God why he let this wicked man stay in his position while my family paid heavily for the consequences of his sinful actions.

I started reading the book of Psalms and found David could put into words what I was thinking. David asked the same things I was…why do wicked men prosper and where was God in that. I found comfort knowing I wasn’t the only one who had ever felt this way. I also knew (from reading God’s Word) I needed to give up my anger and let God (in his time) deal with this man. To my knowledge, nothing has ever happened as far as consequences, but I do know that someday he will stand before God for what he did. And if I had held onto my bitterness, I would have also had to stand before God.

But it doesn’t stop with reading your Bible! Reading helps you know what God says, but your faith won’t grow much if you don’t obey what you read. I knew that if I held onto my anger, it would poison me. Was it easy? NO WAY! I struggled daily, sometimes hourly begging God to help me not to hate that man. And you know what? It eventually became easier until the day came when the hurt faded into faint thin emotional scar. I realized I could trust God when he says not to let bitterness dwell in your heart. He was right. And my faith grew.

Lastly, faith is taking a step. It’s a step no one can take for you but yourself. Let me say that again. It’s a step no one can take for you but yourself. It’s making the choice to believe what God says and then do it. Every time the doubts come up, you pray. You plead with God to help you stand firm. You read in the Bible and begin to see how much God cares about you and has a plan that you will never fully see until you reach heaven. But you know that your part is important and you trust that what God throws at you, it’s for a reason.

“For we live by believing and not by seeing.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NLT)

I shared a couple weeks ago the moment I realized I had no faith.  Later that day I had someone email me and say they were struggling with their faith and asked for advice. What do you do if you find yourself in crisis mode and suddenly realize the faith you thought you had doesn’t exist?

First, I want to make a distinct between “Saving Faith” and the faith I talked about not having a couple weeks ago. Can you truly lose your faith? No. You are saved forever. That faith you had the moment you believed in God’s gift of salvation is there permanently. It’s like a little seed inside you. But that seed has to grow. And you may find in your moment of crisis that your seed of faith is so small it seems nonexistent. That’s one reason trials come into our lives, to grow that seed, to stretch those faith muscles and make them strong, to help us see that God is real and that he can be trusted.

So how do you rediscover (or grow) your faith when you find you have none? The first thing I’ve come to realize about faith is it’s not a light switch. You can’t just flip the switch and tada you have faith (at least I’ve never been able to do that lol). It’s a learning process that starts by making the small choices to trust God.

Secondly, I believe God is big enough to handle our questions. I’m one of those people that needs to know why I believe what I believe. I remember one time wrestling with prayer. If someone wasn’t healed, was it because that was God’s will, did my prayer not “take,” or was prayer just a fluke? (yeah, that’s the question I really had a hard time with for many months).

But even as I wrestled with that prayer issue and if God even heard us, there was something deep inside of me that could not let go of God. He was there, like an anchor inside my soul while up above on the surface I wrestled with the storms in my life. I can’t explain it; I just knew somewhere deep inside of me that God was there. I just needed to work out this issue of my faith.

So how do you work out your faith? What journey did God take me on to grow my own faith?  I’ll share my experience next week.