Have you ever been sick or had surgery and weren’t able to get up and around for a long time? When you finally do, you are wobbly and shaky. But your recovery starts with one or two tiny steps. Soon your strength is restored, and you can go about life with renewed energy.
Faith is like that. Sometimes my faith becomes very, very small for a variety of reasons. For me a period of lackadaisical time in prayer, skipping my individual study of God’s Word, or a lack of Spirit-filled worship shrivels my faith. Focusing too much on what I wish were different in my life or lamenting when God doesn’t answer my prayers in the way or the timeframe that I wanted also sucks the life out of my faith.
Like recovery from illness, Jesus says it doesn’t take a mountain of faith to believe, but just a tiny step.
The Bible is full of examples of
tiny steps of faith people took. One woman just touched His cloak and was
healed. (Matthew 9:20-22) A centurion simply asked for healing for his servant,
knowing Jesus had the power and authority to heal without coming near the one
who was sick. (Matthew 8:5-9)
With just one step toward Jesus, Matthew, a dishonest tax collector, began his walk of faith and went on to write one of the gospels! (Matthew 9:9) Peter recklessly takes one step out of a boat in a terrible storm and ends up preaching, teaching, and healing in Jesus’ name.
Jesus can do great things in our lives with just one step.
Setting aside even one hour a week to truly soak in, study, and mediate on Scripture, (rather than simply reading the text and only half concentrating), is one tiny step we can take. That kind of digging deeper into God’s Word opens a channel for Jesus to lead and guide us and will most certainly feed our faith.
Being truly present in prayer is another small step we can take to increase our faith. Many times, we pray the same thing over and over, like we are on autopilot. We have little confidence that our prayers will make a difference. But God wants our full attention when we pray! He wants genuine, heartfelt communication with us! He wants us to listen as well as talk so that we can hear Him speak!
If, at the end of each day, we take a few moments to look back over the last 24 hours and search for the blessings we have received that day, our hearts will be filled with thankfulness, and we will take another little step of faith. EVERY day there is evidence of God’s hand, great and small—a neighbor walks over to chat for a few minutes, a flock of bright colored goldfinches cover the birdfeeder and the ground under it, a bill arrives that is less than we expected, a child smiles and waves to us even though we are total strangers.
How’s your faith today? What are small steps you have taken to grow your faith when it has become dry and shriveled? I would love to hear from you!
Be encouraged!
©2023 Pamela D. Williams.
