You’re reading ACTS: LESSONS IN FAITH, by Eric Elder, featuring thirty inspiring devotionals based on the lives of the very first followers of Christ. Also available in paperback and eBook formats in our bookstore for a donation of any size!

Scripture Reading: Acts 6

I suppose you’ve heard what happens when you sing a country music song backwards, right?  You get your car back, you get your dog back, you get your wife back.

Well today, I want to talk about how to get something else back:  I want to talk about how to get your faith back ― how to get your faith back if you’ve lost it, how to find it for the first time if you’ve never found it before, and if you’ve already found it, how to help others find their faith, too, so that they can truly become filled with faith, or “faith full.”

There’s a scene in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy and her brothers and sister finally all stumble into the land of Narnia when they’re trying to hide in an old wardrobe.  Lucy had discovered Narnia before, but when she told her family about it, they made fun of her, they got mad at her, and they told her to stop imagining things.  But now they all see it with their own eyes and finally believe. I love that moment of discovery, when people go from doubt to faith, from unbelief to belief, from questioning what others have told them to believing it with they’re whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

Acts chapter 6 describes one of the early believers named Stephen in a way that I’d love to become as well.  Acts says that Stephen was:

“a man who was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5).  

That’s what I think God wants each of you to be:  men and women who are full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.  Men and women who are so filled with faith that it overflows from within you and onto those around you.

But how can we get to the point where we’re “faith full”?  How can we help other people discover what we’ve found to be true?

Here are three things I’d recommend:

1) Read your Bible.  The Bible contains story after story of people who have put their faith in God and become filled with faith as a result.  When you read their stories, it will help to increase your faith as well.

Today’s a good day to read John chapter 20, for instance, where it describes three sets of people at the moment when they went from doubt to belief, who got to see Jesus raised from the day on that first Easter morning and in the days immediately following His resurrection. The Apostle John says he wrote these stories for you:  “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31).

2)  Research your Barriers.  If you’ve got questions that are keeping you from fully believing what God has said in His Word, take time to get your questions answered so you can move forward in your faith.

This is what Lee Strobel did when his wife told him she had become a Christian.  Lee was an atheist and the legal affairs editor for the Chicago Tribune.  He decided to use his journalism and legal training to thoroughly investigate Christianity, hoping to liberate his wife from this cult! But his plan backfired when he found more evidence that supported the resurrection than he ever imagined and he ended up putting his faith in Christ.

3)  Reconnect with your Brothers and Sisters in Christ.  God doesn’t want you to go it alone.  He wants you to help each other, to bear each other’s burdens and to sharpen each other like iron sharpens iron.

C.S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia and other great Christian works, went to Oxford College as an atheist.  But after reading books by George McDonald and others he admired and discovered were strong Christians, he turned from atheism to believing there must be a God.  But it was when he began to meet with other Christians in person, like fellow student J.R.R. Tolkien who later wrote The Lord of The Rings, they challenged his thoughts and ideas.  After talking with his friends till three in the morning one night, Lewis went home and the next morning went from just believing in God to becoming a Christian.

Read your Bible.  Research your Barriers, and Reconnect with your Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

These aren’t the only way to become filled with faith, but they’re certainly good things to do, even if you’re a strong believer, because they can help you keep up in the faith that you’ve already come to believe in your heart.

Prayer: Father, thank You for giving me so many examples of people who have put their faith in You.  Help me to keep putting my faith in You, and to help others put their faith in You, too. In Jesus’ name, Amen.