{"id":349,"date":"2017-08-09T13:24:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T13:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=349"},"modified":"2017-08-09T13:24:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T13:24:45","slug":"a-simple-way-to-increase-your-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/08\/a-simple-way-to-increase-your-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Way to Increase Your Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nathan
Nathan Anderson<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of us\u00a0want to believe more, we just don’t know how. Our eyes don’t\u00a0see past our mountains to view God’s might, we don’t\u00a0see God’s power because of our problems. We need to increase our faith. But how? Is there\u00a0a magic phrase we’re supposed to say? Telling someone with little faith to simply ‘believe more’ is like asking someone to start flying and when they ask you how, your response is: ‘just fly.’ What’s a practical way you can\u00a0increase your faith in God?<\/p>\n

Here’s a first step: see things from a different perspective.<\/strong> Twenty centuries ago Jesus taught us a lot about faith and how we can grow ours. Look at an insight from Matthew 8:<\/p>\n

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cLord,\u201d he said, \u201cmy servant lies at home paralyzed,\u00a0suffering terribly.\u201d <\/span>Jesus said to him,\u00a0\u201cShall I come and heal him?\u201d <\/span>The centurion replied, \u201cLord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, \u2018Go,\u2019 and he goes; and that one, \u2018Come,\u2019 and he comes. I say to my servant, \u2018Do this,\u2019 and he does it.\u201d <\/span><\/em>When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,\u00a0\u201cTruly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.<\/em> Matthew 8:5-10<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus was amazed at the faith of the centurion, so what was it about the centurion’s faith that made it so large? Look at where the centurion focused: Jesus’ power, not his problems. Jesus’ might, not the mountains before him. Rather than focusing on the paralysis of his servant, the centurion chose to focus on the authority of Jesus. He saw things from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

Or take the universe as an example. When you look at it from our perspective, the universe is absolutely overwhelming. There are estimated to be 300 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is just one of 100 billion galaxies estimated to be in our observable universe (as far as we can see at this point). Scientists estimate that there could be 70 billion trillion stars out there. From our perspective, the universe is incomprehensibly overwhelming. From God’s perspective, it merits a whole five words in the creation story. In Genesis 1, the creation of the vastness of space is captured in five simple words, “He also created the stars<\/em>” (Genesis 1:16). What seems insurmountable to us is astonishingly easy for God. It’s all about perspective.<\/p>\n

If you want a simple way to increase your faith, change your perspective. Lift up your eyes from the mountains before you and focus on the might of our Heavenly Father. Don’t focus on your problems, focus on God’s power. Go outside and look at the stars. See how far you can count. Get lost in the majesty of God and realize that this God is for you and fighting on your behalf. Have faith and believe!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of us\u00a0want to believe more, we just don’t know how. Our eyes don’t\u00a0see past our mountains to view God’s might, we don’t\u00a0see God’s power because of our problems. We need to increase our faith. But how? Is there\u00a0a magic phrase we’re supposed to say? Telling someone with little faith to simply ‘believe more’ is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[207,11,27,65,210,208,209],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-belief","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-josh-daffern","tag-stars","tag-universe"],"yoast_head":"\nA Simple Way to Increase Your Faith - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you genuinely want to increase your faith in God but you're not sure how, here is a simple step to get you started towards bigger faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/08\/a-simple-way-to-increase-your-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Simple Way to Increase Your Faith - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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