How Faith Grows

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” — Romans 10:17 (ESV)

“How do I get more faith?” Spurgeon says a lot of nonsense gets talked about this, so he gets practical. The first answer is almost blunt: “The shortest way to believe is to believe.” But if you’re stuck, take it to God — tell him exactly what puzzles you, the way you’d ask an author what he meant. Hear the gospel often; we come to believe things we hear again and again. Listen to people who’ve been changed; you’ll find someone just like you. He tells of a man from a hot country who refused to believe water could turn hard enough to walk on. When he finally saw a frozen river, he still wouldn’t step onto it — until he watched others walk across safely. Then he trusted it too.

Even better, look at who is telling you to believe. A factory foreman was afraid he had no right to come to Christ. His employer sent a card round: “Come to my house immediately after work.” When John turned up, the boss pretended to be annoyed — what right did he have to call at this hour? “As you sent for me,” John said, “I had a right to come.” Then the boss read him Jesus’ words: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” John saw it at once. If Jesus has invited you, you can’t be wrong to come. And if you still can’t trust him, ask why. He’s never done anything to deserve your distrust. “They made Him a martyr; but you make Him a liar.” So Spurgeon flips the question: “Do not ask how can I believe? But answer another question — How can you disbelieve?” Sometimes, he says, the real block is pride — a quarrel with God you haven’t dropped, a wish to keep your own way. His advice is to surrender, and he says he believes no one ever threw up their hands and cried, “Lord, I yield,” without finding before long that faith had become easy.

Then someone objects: Jesus said, “You must be born again,” and that’s something only God can do. True, says Spurgeon — but the same chapter in John says that whoever believes in him will not perish. Both came from the same lips. “It is ours to believe, it is the Lord’s to create us anew.” The Spirit’s work is like the wind, Jesus said: you can’t see where it comes from, only what it does. A farmer can’t make seed grow either, but that’s no excuse not to sow. And your believing is itself the evidence that the Spirit is already at work.

Finally, remember that you’re not trusting a dead hero. Jesus rose and is alive, interceding for sinners at God’s right hand, with all authority in heaven and earth. “We have a Friend at court; yea, a Friend on the throne.” Put your case in his hands: “No suit ever failed which was left with this great Advocate.”

Now — what is this actually about? Faith grows by looking at Jesus, not by looking at your faith. When people want “more faith,” they usually try to manufacture a feeling. Spurgeon’s advice is the opposite: get closer to the evidence. Hear the message more. Hang around people it has changed. Notice that Jesus actually invited you. Think about who he is. Faith is a response to something outside you; feed it with that.

And don’t let the deep questions — How does the new birth work? How does God’s part fit with mine? — become a reason to stay on the shore. Nobody refuses a lifeboat because they don’t understand buoyancy.

One thing to do this week: ask one Christian you respect to tell you, in ten minutes, how they came to trust Jesus — and what they were like before. Then read Matthew 11:28 and treat it as John treated his boss’s card: an invitation with your name on it.