When I was in college, a friend of mine once told me never to pray, “God, increase my faith” unless I really meant it. Maybe two years before she and I had met, she had been desperately seeking God and desiring to increase her faith in him. During this time, she was in a terrible car accident. She racked up huge medical expenses, and on top of that needed to purchase a new car since hers had been totaled in the accident. She was also in a lot of physical pain from the injuries she sustained in the crash.

My friend saw this experience, however extreme, as an opportunity to allow God to increase her faith. During her situation, there were times when she says she couldn’t have gotten through without God. He provided for her financially. She made a full physical recovery. She says she knows without any doubt that he was with her, and her faith has dramatically increased as a result.

I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a terrible thing to go through. I’m all for faith. But maybe not that much faith. How about some, “God, I think I sense you telling me to eat that Oreo” (Yes, Lord, for my good and your glory, I will eat that Oreo!!) kind of faith? That seems much more my speed.

Possibly because of my friend’s story and others like it that I’ve heard over the years, growing my faith has been kind of a touchy subject for me. Like, get too deep and he might send me to Africa, or desire too much Jesus and I might just be put in a situation where I will be forced to get a whole lotta Jesus at once and it won’t be pleasant.

However, after hearing two weeks of the Grow series at The Creek, I feel a little bit better about committing to develop a few more faith muscles.

start small

On Sunday, Pastor Trevor talked about Peter’s first step of faith. Peter’s first step was probably the smallest possible baby step ever. Jesus asked Peter to take him just a little bit out from shore in Peter’s boat.

That doesn’t sound so intimidating.

Jesus was gentle. He met Peter where he was and asked him to start there. That first step seemed like nothing. Anyone could do it; the world wouldn’t have ended if it didn’t happen. But because Peter chose to say yes (and to keep saying yes), his life was totally changed.

I think God’s pulled that trick on me, too.

One memorable occasion was when my mom said “Hey, you want to come set up an Operation Christmas Child booth at church with me?” I said yes to that, which led to me being at church at the same time Leslie Ryser was. Leslie was directing The Creek’s kid’s ministry at the time and she was in need of volunteers to help with the Sunday evening service they had just started. She asked if I might want to hang out with some kids once or twice a month. I said yes. It just kind of snowballed from there. How about hanging out with kids every week? How about hanging out with students once a month? How about every week? How about serving in the cafe? How about leading this? And eventually, how would you feel about coming on staff at The Creek?

It’s unbelievable to me that helping my mom put a sign on a table somehow led to me spending every day in the business of planning ways for children and students to experience Jesus on their own level. 

It started so inconsequentially. Anyone could have spent an hour twice a month playing with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. If I hadn’t, someone else would have. I never felt particularly equipped or prepared and was often sure I had damaged a kid for life. But somehow God honored those small steps I took and kept giving me more. And the strangest thing is that I wanted to take them. The first step was the hardest. I fudged. I hemmed and hawed and tried to back out. But after I took the first step, the others felt easier, smaller, and more and more like something I wanted to do.

ADD

Of course, we can’t just stop with a boat ride. Like Peter experienced, there’s always somewhere else Jesus wants to take you (that’s why you’ve heard it called a “Christian walk:” you have to keep moving).

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

I don’t like being ineffectual, but I love feeling productive. So that resonates with me. To make what I believe count (in the sense of being valuable, profitable, etc), my behavior must also be affected. Once I have faith, any amount of faith, I should make the effort to add goodness, then I should learn more. The more I learn, the more I should attempt to apply it to my life. That’s self-control. The more I try to apply to my life, the more I’m going to realize my own failures, which is why I will need perseverance. And the more I persevere in trying to apply what God is teaching me, the more like Jesus I become, which is the goal of faith, “to be conformed into the image of Jesus” (Romans 8:29). That makes me a productive Christ-follower and that keeps me growing.

Growing is a good thing. It is not usually terrible, often only inconvenient. So we should grow. It’s good. It’s important. He probably won’t send you to Africa (or whatever your version of that is), or at least not until you’re ready. He hasn’t sent me there yet, so chances are good.