So often we’re invited by Jesus to have faith and believe in Him and to accept many things as a matter of faith. The gift of faith is like a small flame within our hearts that we carelessly expose to the winds. This carelessness allows the flame of faith to be extinguished before it can grow.
The goal of our Christian walk is to let that flame of faith become the blazing fire that God wants. And it’s possible! It’s entirely possible to let that flame become so all-consuming that nothing can put it out.
The path to this blazing fire of faith within has to do with the way we handle that spark which is already there. We have to care for and nurture that small flame. We have to treat the beginnings of our faith with great care. We must guard it and feed it so that it grows. This is done, in part, by avoiding carelessness in our life of prayer.
Prayer is the key to letting God grow within. He’s there, speaking to us and calling us to believe. Every time we doubt, or harden our heart, we expose that tiny flame to the elements. But every time we intensely focus upon that flame, we enable it to grow and take hold. Praying, listening, seeking, loving, and believing are the ways to the faith God wants to bestow upon us. And if the Apostles would have just let that gift of faith, planted deep within, grow by a softening of their hearts, they would have quickly and easily believed that Jesus was alive without having a need to see Him with their own eyes.
We don’t see the Resurrected Christ in a physical way, but we do have the same ability as the Apostles to know and love Him. A good start would be to recommit ourselves to prayer and watch our faith in Christ grow brightly!
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