Lord, Increase Our Faith

From a commentary:

"We work differently under faith or discouragement; we pray differently under faith or discouragement; we read and hear the word differently under faith or discouragement - no wonder Satan works so hard to keep us from faith and in discouragement!"

Isn't it true that nearly everything we do in this life is colored by how we feel? I remember hearing someplace that carnality is when you are a Christian but still living worldly, in bondage to your feelings.

I tried to find the quote I read by C. H. Spurgeon and couldn't but the main point was that if you are truly saved you want everyone else to be saved too, and if you don't have a heart for everyone else to be saved then you are not truly saved yourself.

That is not to say that everyone has the gift of evangelism and I think we can even do more damage if we are just trying to "bulldoze" someone into faith. I think that the gospel is able to stand on it's own. We teach the Word, we pray that God's will be done, we have the humility to get out of the way and let God do a work. If we have a heart for God's people then we will respond by feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, healing the sick, and loving the unloved - not because it is what we should do, but because it's what we can't help doing because we want to be like Jesus.

Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38-39)

Even the disciples asked God to increase their faith. The only way faith can be increased is FROM God - it is a gift. We can't learn it, we can't earn it, but we can encourage each other to hold on to it and we can pray that God will increase it for others as well as ourselves. That would be my prayer for all of you and it is the prayer I would ask more than anything else from all of you - Lord, increase our faith!