It was in my pre-teen years when I was certain that Jesus is Lord, that He loved me and I He. I remember going to the track field where my dad sat in the stands awaiting my run at the hurdles. (I was a great hurdle runner.) My desire to live a Christ like life was heavy on my heart, but I needed to talk to dad to get his permission to be baptized. I believed. After some conversation, he, of course, gave his consent.
The fact that I am a very blessed person stays at the forefront of my mind. My siblings and I were fortunate to of been born into a family that loved God. I went to church with mom, dad, sisters, brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. We learned about God and Christ, were active in Sunday school, went on mission trips and never missed when the doors of the church were open for worship. We were also active in our schools, sports, choir, orchestra and band. I was the track star, always had first or second chair as a cellist and sang alto in the school choir. 4 siblings all very active in their school, all made good grades, grew up across the street from Cunningham elementary in a modest 3-bedroom home with fruit trees in the backyard and best friends on the same street. We all believed in Christ and we all do to this day.

Today, I marvel at how blessed a childhood we had. My parents had faith.
From my high school years to my late 20′s I made bad choices. Still, I believed, and I was blessed with a Lord who would not give up on me and parents who loved me. I made it through those tumultuous years and through a series of various incidents I finally made my way to group study of the Word. Since that day I have not stopped and as a result my faith has grown. I have no words to explain the depth of feeling I have for the blessings received when faith growing became a priority in my life.
To believe in something is to accept as true. In this case, that Jesus is the son of God, that he lived and died for you and me. Faith is to have allegiance to duty or person, sincerity of intentions; complete trust and loyalty; a firm belief in something for which there is no proof. We, as humans, believe in many things. Faith, however, is a different story, especially our level of faith.
Jesus spoke much about faith and in particular the amount of faith a person had/has. If you will look just in the book of Matthew for starters you will find Jesus performing miracles according to the amount of faith.

Matthew 9:29 …”according to your faith will it be done to you”
Matthew 13:58 “and he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”
Matthew 14:31 “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 15:28 “…woman you have great faith! Your request is granted.”
Matthew 17:19-21 “Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith…”

Let us not be too harsh on these people who had so little faith, after all they were just beginning to learn about Jesus, the Word made flesh. Faith is for growing. We do not develop faith without first believing and second, putting forth time and effort. (Lying in bed on Sunday morning does not grow faith)
I believe that each one of us desires to grow in faith. I believe the only path to that growth is through the study of the Word, the Word made flesh.
How is your faith growing? Is your faith growing? Let us each do a”faith check? and then when we come to the realization that our faith is lacking, decide to do something about it.
Are you ready to begin the awesome journey of faith growing? Take a chance on the mustard seed and see what the Word can do with your faith.
Sunday morning classes are a good place to start, as well as Wednesday evening Bible study.
See you in church!

God loves you immensely!

Tracie