So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.

Romans 10:17

Over the years I’ve heard quite a few people say, “I just wish I had more faith.” I’ve even said it myself a time or two. You know, growing up my elders had a saying about wishing that – while a bit uncivilized – has proven to be pretty spot on in my life. In more delicate language:

Wishing doesn’t accomplish much.

The dictionary defines faith as a strong belief, or a complete trust or confidence. To wish that we had more faith only addresses the first part of the definition, the belief part.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the evidence of things unseen. Christian, we have faith that God exists though we have never physically seen Him. We believe that God exists. We can’t wish we believed that more, we either do or we don’t believe He exists. What we’re really saying when we wish for more faith is that we wish we had more trust in God.

Unlike belief which is based on things unseen, trust comes as a result of observation, experience, and study.

Think of it this way, I worked in the same office for six years. In those six years, my colleagues worked above and beyond their duties to ensure that students and teachers had the support they needed to be successful. How do I know this to be true? Because I watched them day in and day out. They came early, they stayed late, and they often worked right through lunch. They collaborated with me and with other coordinators and offices daily. They treated schools and teachers and parents with kindness and respect when they called and when we were in the field. Through my experiences, through observing them, I came to trust that they would get the job done and done well. I can say the same for my boss and his supervisor and her supervisor and a ton of other people that I interacted with daily or weekly.

Following this example, how then do we increase our trust in God?

By studying His word, reading the experiences of the men and women of the Bible both great and small, and learning more about who God is, His character, His love, and His grace (Romans 10:17).

Dear heart, the more we learn, the more we see His hand and hear His voice – the clearer His plan becomes to us. We already have the level of faith that believes God exists. What we need is the level of faith that more fully trusts God and that level of faith cannot be attained by simply wishing.

We learn to trust that God is in control, trust that we can surrender our will to Him and everything will be great, better than we could plan it, by studying and observing and experiencing how much God loves us and what He desires of us and for us.

Brothers and Sisters, through Christ we are made new and through study and worship and prayer we learn how to be the new self that God desires us to be, to be right with Him (Ephesians 4:24). Through study, observation, and daily experiences, God is gracious to confirm for us that our trust is well placed.

Beloved, the next time you catch yourself wishing you had more faith, ask yourself, “Am I actively learning to trust God by looking for His hands at work, by studying His Word, by talking with Him daily?”. Beloved, wishing simply doesn’t work – watching and learning how God works, that’s what truly builds our faith.