GROW YOUR FAITH WITH THE

HIDDEN IN MY HEART SCRIPTURE MUSIC COLLECTION

Growing Our Faith in the New Year

We can observe God’s blueprint for growth as we watch a plant develop from seed to a mature flower, bush, or tree. Although this is a process we cannot force, it is one we can nurture — and the same is true with our faith. Just as God tucked a plant’s potential within its seed and designed it to flourish, He has given us what we need to mature in our faith by His design. Just as we can encourage a plant’s growth and help it thrive, we can cooperate with God’s design and plan to grow our capacity for faith.

Where Faith Begins

Imagine being completely helpless and rather hopeless. This was the reality for a lame man in Jerusalem in 33 AD. Lame from birth, this grown man had never stepped on his own feet. Each day, this man was carried to the gate of the temple to beg. On one of those days, Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John, passed by. The lame man could not even raise his gaze to look Peter or John in the eyes as he asked for money or food. And yet, Peter and John asked the man to look at them, and they offered him far more than he needed for that day — they healed him. Immediately, the man’s ankles and legs strengthened, and he stood to walk.

When all those around them were astonished and asked how he was healed, Peter said this in Acts 3:12-16: “…Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus…And His name—by faith in His name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.”

Where did the faith that healed the man come from? He did not muster up more faith from his resolve. Instead, the faith he exhibited came from Jesus. The One we place our faith in is also the originator and author of that faith. We may or may not witness a miracle like the man who was healed, but we can experience faith like never before as we draw near to the One who grants and grows our faith.

Nurturing Our Faith

If we want a plant to grow strong and at the right pace, we can mix certain nutrients into the soil, set it on a proper watering schedule, and cover its leaves in acclimate weather. Likewise, we can nourish our faith with times of prayer and by meditating on God’s Word. We can take in God’s living waters through praise and worship and spend time with others who follow God. We can protect our faith by being mindful of what we watch and read and allow into our hearts and minds. 

As we nurture our faith, we agree with God’s plans for our lives, and He blesses those efforts. 

In Isaiah 55:10-11, God uses beautiful imagery of rain watering the earth and bringing forth life to show us the power of His Word in our lives. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

We can be confident that, just as water coaxes forth life from soil, God’s Word will bring life to our spirits and grow and mature our faith.

Boldly Asking for Greater Faith

What do you want to see God do in your faith this year? Do you want to trust Him more naturally rather than succumbing to anxiety or doubt? Might He want to grow your faith in His provision, plans, or power? Where do you struggle to take God at His word, and how might He shore up those doubts and prove His faithfulness to you? 

As you dream ahead for the new year, courageously ask God to grow your faith. Use Ephesians 3:16-19 as a framework for your prayer: “That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

As you pray, remember that Jesus, whom we place our faith in, is also the originator of our faith, and He lavishly gives us what we need.

GROW YOUR FAITH WITH THE

HIDDEN IN MY HEART SCRIPTURE MUSIC COLLECTION