How God Taught Me Faith - Groomed Through the Word (Part One)

Faith, according to the Holy Scriptures, is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).

Faith in God sounds like an abstract and intangible concept to the average human, that's why atheists are exactly who they are in the first place. They simply cannot grasp it with their finite mortal minds.

Even as Christians, we must be honest with ourselves about this fact: that having faith in God is easier preached, and easier said than done.

Jesus said to the Disciples in Matthew 17:20, “You don’t have enough faith, I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

“Faith as little as a mustard seed” - that sounds like a measure of faith that is very easy for anyone to obtain. But is it? Not really that easy!

Faith in God isn't something that anyone can wake up one day and decides to start having - and I say this with all sincerity - out of my own experience. When situations demand it, you'd be surprised to see that your faith isn't even up to the size of a mustard seed.

Faith is something that needs to be built - like a construction work: brick upon brick, layer over layer, gradually and consistently till it's enough to sustain our walk with God.

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I didn't grow up having faith in God. Neither did I start having faith in God immediately when I got saved. God groomed me into having faith.

Negative life experiences have a way of nullifying every possible attempts of anyone to start trusting God. And I'd say... that was my case - even after I got saved.

I was used to having bad experiences, failing at the verge of breakthrough, experiencing setbacks and stagnation no matter the efforts I put in trying to move forward.

So I knew what to expect anyway, and that's what I was always expecting.

Even after I gave my life to Christ, I didn't immediately start believing God to overturn this cycle in my life.

It took God a lot of work in me to gradually peel off that dark and crusty layer of unbelief and hopelessness from my mind, and then replace it with complete trust in Him and a positive mindset.

You see, faith is not something that should be scratched on the surface and left alone. For different people, it really goes way deeper than you'd imagine. And I know for sure that it's way worse for certain people (including Christians) than it was with me.

If you're just the way I was before now, God has a unique curriculum for teaching you faith - different from what He uses for most Believers.

God will patiently groom your faith, bit by bit and stage by stage. Your responsibility is to partner with Him in order to ensure that His grooming actually affects you and produces the expected results.

1. God Groomed My Faith Through His Word.

The Bible says in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

If you truly want to build your faith in God (instead of just stubbornly deciding to remain a doubter for the rest of your life), this is one part that you are required to do by yourself and for yourself: study the Word!

Yes, I knew that my belief system was broken and corrupted at that time, but I didn't sit back waiting for God to descend from Heaven with a magic faith portion to feed me so I could start having faith.

One of the things the Holy Spirit drove me into doing after getting saved was studying the Word. The excitement that came with it was like the excitement of getting to know a new friend. That's how appealing studying the Word of God should be for every genuine Christian.

Open your Bible! God will patiently sit with you, to teach you and reveal Himself to you through His Word. And this is how the Word gradually starts transforming your belief system. Faith starts developing as a result. If it happened to me, then it can happen to anyone.

To be continued in Part Two