In the LeaderTreks staff devotions this morning, we were reading 2 Kings 4:1-7 where Elisha is helping the widow who was broke and down to her last bit of oil. Elisha instructs her to go out and collect jars and fill them with the oil from her home. As we all know the oil doesn’t run out until the last jar is filled. This story shows God’s love for his people who are in need but it also challenges us in our faith. The number of jars the widow collects reflects her faith; in fact at the end of the story she wishes she had more jars. So a question came up after reading through this story: how do we grow our faith? For most of us our faith is equal with the people in our Christian community. It’s rare to find a person with incredible faith not impacting those around them and raising their level of faith. But if we don’t have that kind of person around us how can we deepen our faith? Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Faith is a gift of God so ask God for more faith. Ask God to stretch you, to take you out of your comfort zone so you can rely on God’s power and provision.

2. Faith needs to be practiced. Make short list of spiritual disciplines you want to work on. For example: giving beyond tithing, sharing Christ to a stranger, bringing people in need into your home. Try over the course of a month to practice the items on your list. I believe you will like it so much that it may become normal practice for you.

3. Faith is deepened as dependence on God is deepened. Spend more time with God to understand his heart. This will require more time in God’s word and more time with people that Jesus hung-out with. As we spend time with God, I believe that we will see his passion for people and we will be inspired to take risks to see people come to him.