Increasing Faith

When His disciples asked Him to increase their faith one day, Jesus answered with 3 descriptions of the relationship of faith to authority and obedience to that authority (Luke 17:6-10). The answer was not a “7 Steps to Increased Faith” series, available for a one-time gift of $25 or more. It was a description of faith at work with authority.

When a centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant one day, Jesus agreed to come to his home and heal him. The centurion, grasping the connection of faith and authority, caused Jesus to marvel when he replied something like, “You don’t have to go there – just speak to him from here and he will be healed. You have the authority to do it.”

When Jesus answered the request for increased faith, He described to them the garden in which faith grows. It is a place where things need to be managed and ordered. He didn’t give them the steps to putting the puzzle together – He just showed them the picture on the front of the box. “This is what it will look like when you get the pieces together.”

Faith is increased like most strengths: in the arena where you work a muscle or a nerve or a joint and it grows. Faith grows in the garden of things broken or missing or contending against success. If you use the faith you have, you will get more.