Build Up Your Faith

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. – Jude 1:20-21

I must say that contrary to what some might believe - faith is not contagious. You cannot get faith by going to church. You cannot glean faith from Christian friends. Faith does not come from a particular church denomination or affiliation. Faith is personal and it must be developed. Any effort that is going to be successful must be intentional. Nobody achieves great faith by accident.

Even though we accept Christ by faith, we do not have great faith instantly at that very moment. We must work on it and make a conscious effort to build our faith in God. It takes adversity, patience and perseverance to attain faith. It is the things that we experience; the methods and the ways that God brings us through circumstances that solidifies our faith.

Just like you can tell how big or tall a building will be by how deep the foundation is, great faith is determined how deep one’s hope runs. Hope is a very integral part of faith. If you have everything you want and need and you hope for nothing, you do not need any faith. Faith is only needed when there is something that you hope for but you have no means of achieving in your own strength. Faith is the important bridge that takes you from your place of hope to the realization of that hope.

I don’t know about you but I cannot live without faith. Faith is my lifeline; it is the foundation upon which my hope rests. I make it a priority to spend time building up my faith by reflecting on my experiences and the hand of God upon my life. I spend time listening to the Word of God and understanding how it applies to my life. With the way the world is going, we need our faith to survive. We can no longer afford to have faith in ourselves, our friends or our check books. We need faith in the God of the Bible.