There are times when we feel that our lives are so off track, even though we are still walking with the Lord. We have the faith to believe that Jesus Christ came down from heaven, was born of a virgin, and walked among men. We believe that he bared our sins on the cross as he died. We also believe that our God and Father, resurrected Jesus with all power and that he sits at the right hand of his God interceding on our behalf to God. We believe that he is the redeemer of our souls, and yet we cannot believe Him for the simple day-to-day miracles.

We as Christians long deeply for a greater trust in God. We desire to grow in the Lord but our faith is weak, unsure, and unstable at times even though we want to believe. However, we do not have to long always; we can grow our faith in God. The word says, “Without faith it is impossible to please the Lord” Hebrews 11:39 (KJV). We must have faith to please the Lord, and like anything else we have to grow in our faith and most often it is a process. Learning the process is simply following what works for you in your life. Here are some basic steps for growing your faith in God, and learning how to trust the Lord at the same time.

Step One: Create a Faith Journal

Writing is a powerful way to build faith. Creating a faith journal is simple. Find a book with bound blank sheets of paper and begin to journal your weaknesses. Each time you write, be sure to include the date. Journal entries should include the areas where you are struggling to trust God. Write as often as you have doubts and include your prayers asking God to help you believe. Over time, when you return to read your entries, you will find that God has resolved many of the problems in your journal. You will find that God answered your prayers which will offer concrete proof what God has done and that he will do greater things in your life. When you begin to search for faith to trust God on greater levels, you can read how God has worked on your behalf in the past.

Step two: Devotional time

Devotional time is a very much needed in our lives to build our faith in God. Yes, many of us are busy and our spare time is limited in each day. Nevertheless, we must take time to spend with the Lord on a daily basis. Participating in daily devotion unto the Lord will keep your heart focused on God and the power in God. Start a daily devotion with a quiet or guided meditation, read scriptures on faith, and remember to attend your devotional services and Bible study at a church. When you feel doubtful or hopeless, grab hold of faith through your devotional time.

Step Three: Obey God

Another necessary step to grow in faith is listening to what God has to say. When you are in line with what the Lord expects of you, then you can expect his promises to be fulfilled. There are many promises from the Lord in the Bible. However, each promise rests upon our actions and level of belief. When you are aligned with what God commands of us as his children, you can confidently rest in expectation that God will fulfill his promises. One promise from the Bible states, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7 (KJV)

Step four: Filter Your life

Let’s be honest, sometimes we need to filter a lot of junk out of our life that drains our faith. When we live a godly life, and walk with God, our faith will start to grow. When you walk with your entire mind focused on God and with a pure heart, you are bound to grow in faith. Our faith increase over time, and with time, it will start to spring up. However, that only comes when you have purified your heart. If you do not filter out the impurities in your life, like fear, doubt, negativity, and unbelief, it is hard to have faith in God. Instead of trusting God, we start to look at our circumstances. Just as we filter our water that it will be fresh to drink it, we need to filter a lot of the things we watch, and listen to that contaminate our spirit.

As we know, “Faith is the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrew 11:1).We might not see faith, but have to know that faith is there. The scripture says we not going to see it, we just have to believe it. God sees our shortcoming, and he knows our weaknesses. He knows that our faith will grow as we mature in Him. At times God will even test our faith. The Bible says, (1 Peter 4:12): “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you”. We are going to be tested, and we need faith to carry us through it. That is why we have to grow in faith by devoting our time, obeying God, and filtering out our lives.

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Most people are in a hurry.  In their hurry, they cut me off in traffic and don’t even realize they did it.  My response to that person should be to forgive them.  In Exodus 34:6, God tells us He is slow to anger and filled with love.  We should strive to be like Him.  I know it is hard to show love when my neighbors are showing hatred to me.

Look at Psalm 32.  David tells us what happens when we don’t forgive someone, ” my body wastes away, and I groan all day long.”  What that means is that it eats away at you.  Your insides feels funny, maybe like you are sick but you are not.  Our God is an awesome God and He forgives us for all our transgressions.

When someone cuts you off in traffic, don’t be angry at them, Bless them.  If you know them and see them later, you can tell them what they did wrong.  But still Bless them.  That anger can attack you.  When you Bless them and they still are mad, the Blessings will come back to you.

How do you react to being cut off in traffic?

When you finish drinking your soda pop, do you pitch it?  Where?  In your back seat?  Out the window?  Our environment is filling up with garbage.  Our streets look trashy.  God Blessed up by telling us we can rule over the animals.  We are Blessed with a conscience and a brain although most people don’t use it.

When riding around the country, I notice the trash in a city, maybe because the one I live in doesn’t get much attention.  I know a guy that saw an older man in a parking lot put a plastic bottle on the ground knowing he was going to leave it there as trash.  So, this guy pointed it out to him saying, “mister, you forgot this bottle.”  The older man said that he didn’t want it.  So the guy said, “ok, then take it home with you and put it in the trash.”  The older guy got huffy and took it and threw it in his car and left.

Maybe we should all do something like that.  If we all take care of our trash, maybe our planet will last longer and look nicer.  Don’t throw trash out of your car.  Dispose of it properly.

God didn’t create a planet with trash on it already.  We created our own garbage.  We need to take care of it.  How do you dispose of your trash in your car?

The Bible says “the joy of the Lord is my strength.”  If I look to the Lord Jesus for my daily strength, I will be lifted up and will feel secure during my day.  If I look to material things, my happiness is temporary.  If I look to the lord for my joy, I get my joy on the inside and no one can take it away.  Determination is my daily goal.  Every day when I get up and stand on the scale, I say, “this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  I look to the Lord and not to the scale.  Eating makes me temporarily happy but not joyful.  I can eat when I’m sad or when I’m happy.  That’s why I said to look inside for your joy.

The same thing works if you like to shop.  Do you get your happiness from making a purchase?  It makes me happy temporarily but that type of joy will not last.

Read your Bible.  Look inside yourself.  Determine that today you will be full the the joy of the Lord.  Happiness is usually outside or external things.  Joy is what we feel deep down inside our spirit.

What makes you happy?  Where do you get your joy from?

Look to the Bible.  What did Jesus do?  How did He give love?  When they were about to stone Mary Magdalen, Jesus loved Her without even looking at her.  He was writing in the sand.  What was He writing?  Love.  Not the word, but the meaning.  Jesus’ heart is full of love.  No matter what we do, He loves us.

Remember when you picked on your little sister or brother?  Remember when you yelled at your kids?  Remember when you passed up someone who needed your help?  Jesus remember, too.  But yet He still loves us.  When He passes that love to us, we should pass it on to others.  Keep the love flowing.  Remember to stop and smell the roses.  Jesus created them.  Thank Him for his love.

How have you shown love today?

Do you rattle off all your good qualities or do you humbly relate all you have to the Glory of God?  When you get a bonus like an extra pay check, or a Christmas bonus, or you sell something online or at a flee market, do you give Glory to God or do you say, ‘I worked hard for that?’  All we have is from God.  All the food I have in my refrigerator is from God.  The gasoline in my car is from God.  The joy in my heart is from God.  Whether it is material things or something special in your heat or soul, it is from God.  And God must get the Glory.

When King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and Daniel knew he would be able to answer the King’s questions, he came forward.  See Daniel 2:14-16.  He knew something deep down inside of him.  He knew God was his provider and would provide the answers.  What did he do first?  He called his Godly friends together and asked them to pray.  Is that the first thing you do?  Pray?  God will answer if you put Him first.  Give Him Glory.  Daniel trusted the the Lord would give him the answers to give the King.  And He did.  In verse 27, Daniel explains the King’s dream.  But he is only able to do that because he trusted in the Lord.  Do you?

Trust in the Lord for everything.  Then He will fulfill your desires.  But remember, trust comes first.  How has the Lord helped you today?

If someone is good at cooking, does that mean that their gift is cooking?  In 1 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says that we are given gifts to help each other.  He goes on in this chapter to list the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us.  He says that we do not all have the same gifts and that we should desire the most helpful gifts.  is cooking the most desirable gift for you?  How can cooking help someone?  Cooking can certainly help a shut-in person who is restricted or limited in movement.  Would you consider that a gift?  It is not listed in that chapter so I guess I’d have to say no.  Cooking is not a gift but a natural talent.

There are many talents which show through when someone is speaking to you.  Do they talk about themselves?  Do they offer to help you in your need?  Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest gift is love.  Whether you cook for someone or put out their garbage, speaking to them like Christ would is a gift of love.  Let love be you goal.

Natural talents or spiritual gifts?  What do you think?

When I do a good job, I am proud of my self.  I have accomplished a task.  I have finished that task and I have done a good job.  Does that make me prideful?  Not necessarily.  Did I brag about it to all my coworkers?  Did I call up all my friends and tell them about what I did?  Sometimes we need to tell someone about a job that we did, but it should only be used as a tool.  Are you training someone?  Are you teaching someone?  Using your job as an example to others may not be being prideful.

But if you run around telling every body about what happened just so they will tell you that you did a good job, then that’s bragging.  That’s being prideful, or being full of your self.  Are you the topic of conversion?  You shouldn’t be. A great listener will be welcomed by every one.  If you only brag about yourself, people will avoid you when they see you coming.  In Psalm 3:3, it tells me that God is the one who holds my head high.  He is the one to give me a pat on the back, not my friends after bragging to them.

Every thing you do should be to glorify God.  Let God be the One who brags about you.

If someone gives you a gift, what do you do it?  Do you spend it?  Or do you share it and pass it on?  God created the earth and gave it to us.  Do we spend it and trash everything He gave us or do we share its bountiful uses and pass it on to our kids?

In Genesis 1, God created earth.  He created the land.  He created the sea.  He created the vegetation.  On the sixth day, He created man and gave us all the fruits  to eat.  And after He created, He looked at each one and said, “it was good.”  Can you think of something in your life that is good?  It’s good to have food.  It’s good to have shelter.  It is good to have clean water and clean air. I value my food and value my shelter, my home.  I would not have them except that God gave them to me. 

Be aware of material values. There is an old saying, ‘a home is where you make it.”  A home can be an apartment or a mansion. Value it for what it is, a shelter, a home. It is not the end all.  Don’t live in a place to try and impress people.  Just thank God you have one.

Earth day will not save the planet in one day but it will draw attention.  It will show me how to use less energy.  It will show me how to quit using plastic bags.  It will show me how to recycle.

God created  the earth and He gave it to me.  Everyday should be God’s Day.  What are you passing on?

How do you feed yourself, physically and spiritually?  In order to feed yourself physically, you put food in your mouth.  You don’t eat every thing in your kitchen all at once.  You eat a little at a time with variety.  That’s how it should be when you feed yourself spiritually. You need to put food (Bread) into your spirit.  You needto do it a little at a time.  My brain goes into overload and I won’t remember if I read too much at once.  So, I read daily.  I take in a little at a time. I’ll read Psalms one day and then read some of the Gospels.  Then, I think on it, pray about it, and dwell on it the rest of the day.  By reading my Bible a little at a time, I am feeding and growing in my spiritual life a little at a time.

Another way to feed your spirit to listen to Christian music.  There is a great radio station in my areas and it plays uplifting Christian music.  I also have CD’s to pop in my car if I get tired of the radio.  I have CD’s to calm me down and other to get me to jump to the beat.

How do you eat your Bread (the Bread of Jesus)?  How do you feed your spirit?