Increase Our Faith

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! 

Mark 9:24  

And the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. 

Luke 17:5 

We have faith, but we are woefully aware we need more faith. We are not alone. Many before us have felt their need for their faith to increase. The man with the demon-possessed son said, ‘Help my unbelief.’ The disciples said, ‘Lord, increase our faith.’ These are two examples of many we could cite from Scripture and from personal experience. The purveyors of Christless, man-centered, guilt theology have an answer for this question of ‘how can I have an increase of faith?’ Their answer is, ‘Try harder, work harder, believe more, be more thankful, look to yourself.’ Christ’s answer is dramatically opposed to this. He told His disciples in the Upper Room, ‘without Me, you can do nothing.’ This applies to the increase of our faith. All the efforts we make will fail, if we look to ourselves. The man in our text looked to Christ. The disciples looked to Christ. They wanted their faith to increase. We want our faith to increase. If we do, we must look, not to ourselves, but to Christ. As we contemplate His Person, we believe. As we behold His work, we believe. As we draw near to Him, we believe. When He fills all our vision, we believe. Every sight of Christ increases our faith.  

Our Wise and Loving Savior, 
we rejoice that You show Yourself to us in many ways. 
We praise You that as we look to You, 
the more and more we believe. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning