 I want to grow my faith, but how can I grow my faith when there's always something happening? I'm always going through these trials and these things that just cause my faith to wane. How can I grow my faith? Hey, smart Christians. The Bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. The problem is our faith seems to wane. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down. So what do I do? What can I do? How do I increase my faith? The man whose boy was tormented by a demon. When Jesus comes and casts a demon out of him, he asks the Father, does he believe? And the Father says, help my unbelief. And so how do we develop our faith? Well, you're actually closer to it than you think. You might not know this, but you are this far from developing your faith. It's really simple now. When I say simple, I mean the steps to take to grow your faith are simple. But in terms of practicality, in terms of applying it, that might be a little hard for some, but it shouldn't be. I'll tell you why. If you've noticed in the Bible, it's always telling us about all the things that people have gone through. The Bible is constantly telling about the children of Israel, what they had to go through. But not just what they went through, but how God has delivered them. Well, therein lies the key. Not just with the children of Israel, but with everyone else, he's pointing out how we can grow our faith. Here's what I mean. How many of you have had things that you've gone through? Think about all the things that you go through, that you've gone through, the things that you complain about, the things that cause you to think that maybe life has been bad for you or unfair or been difficult. Go ahead and in this time, go ahead and name those things. Number those things. Write those things down. You've had people who have abandoned you. You have people that have lied on you. You have lost this job. You've lost this friend. You've lost this amount of money. Your career hadn't gone to where it wanted to go through. The friendship that you don't have anymore or the relationships. Maybe there was someone that maybe you thought that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, and that didn't happen. All the different heartaches. Or we can talk about some of the physical issues, the health issues that I've gone through and I'm still dealing with and they're just frustrating and my faith wanes. Well, those aren't things to be distressed about. Those are things to praise about. I'll come back to that in a second. But let's go and look at what James says and see if he can help us out. He says in chapter one, verse two, you know the passage says, Consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. Well, obviously that's a hard thing to do because when you're going through it, it's difficult to have joy about that. But he says knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. But notice it says the testing of your faith produces endurance. In other words, the things that you've gone through these trials that have tested your faith, well, they keep happening over and over and over. So if we're wise, we'll realize they're going to keep happening. There's always going to be something. And if you look at it that way, you'll start realizing that I just simply have to endure it. I've got to go through it. I've got to deal with it. It's going to happen. And as I look back, I have a history of not only going through those things, but I also have a history of God being with me, bringing me out. No matter how bad it's gotten, I can look back and know that God has been with me and delivered me. How do I know? Well, grab a mirror or grab your cell phone, put it on camera mode or video mode and turn it to where you can look at yourself. You looking at yourself is the proof that God has delivered you and will continue to do so. Does that mean he's going to bless you in every way, shape, form or fashion that you can think of? No, it's not what that means, but it's proof positive that he has been there. And because you've gone through those things, when you go through them again or anything like it to him, eh, piece of cake, I've gone through it before. It may not be comfortable. As a matter of fact, it might be uncomfortable. It might be displeasing for the moment. But Paul even says that these light and momentary afflictions, we can't even compare those to what we're going to see, but he calls them light and momentary affliction. Well, they're light and momentary compared to where we're going to be, but right now it can be difficult, right? Well, he says that testing of your trials produces endurance. And it says that that produces perfect results. In other words, there's some results, some fruit, meaning I can handle this, I can bear this, and I can do so one for my well-being, but also for someone else as well. Peter says this in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse, let's start in verse 3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again, which by the way, we can stop there for a second. He says he caused us to be born again. Just a little side note that he is actively involved in our lives so much so that he's caused us to be born again. But let's keep moving. He says to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from a dead to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. And so we can focus on that and have complete joy in what he has reserved for us in heaven. And if he's going to start it, he's going to finish it, which means whatever we're going through, those won't be our end. Our end result, he says, is going to be the reward that he has reserved for us. But let's continue. He says verse 5, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, look what he says, you have been distressed by various trials. And so the Bible is clear. Peter lets us know that, yeah, we are going to be distressed by these different trials, but that's not the main thing to focus on. But look what he says about these things. He says, so that though we've been distressed by these various trials, so that the proof of your faith, notice the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is imperishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ. In other words, what you've gone through, the proof of your faith is shown that you stood it, that you praise God through it, and that even at the revelation of Christ, even though you've gone through that, it has resulted in you praising God. So now let's get back to that list that I had you to kind of write out. And I actually, I think you ought to go ahead and actually write it out. Put it on your phone, put it on your computer, write it on your wall somewhere. Let yourself be reminded of all the things that you've gone through, and then put aside, put a check mark through everything that you've gone through that God has brought you out of. I don't care if it's been someone that has attacked you physically, mentally, emotionally, if you've had some sort of issues with your health, financially, whatever it is, write all those things down. And then put a check mark by everything or put a line through everything that God has brought you from and that he's kept you in spite of that. You're going to find that every last one of those things probably has a line through it, meaning God is going to keep doing what he's been doing. That's how you can grow your faith, not by thinking about your ability to get through, not by measuring you versus the obstacle that you're dealing with. No, measure your obstacles by God and then count the times, as a song says, count your blessings. Count the times that God has delivered you from each and every one of those things. You'll find that he's batting a thousand. You find that he's delivered you from all those things. Not necessarily that he's gotten rid of those things. No, he's made you stronger to even deal with those things. Some of those things he's destroyed. Some of those things he's made you bigger, better and better to deal with those things. But the truth is you are here which shows that you have been delivered. You are able to deal with all those things. That's how you grow your faith by focusing on what he's done. Like in the Bible, all those things where it says God has delivered them from. Add you and your issues, all of your trials, all your afflictions. Add those to everything else in the Bible where he has delivered them from. And then you should be able to use that to grow your faith. Now, there's one last thing you need to do after you've done all that, to grow your faith, praise him for it. Thank him, praise him constantly. Remind yourself, looking at those things. This is why I'm praising him. And it becomes a habit and your faith grows just like that. Amen.