Believing is Seeing: How to Grow Your Faith in 3 Easy Steps.

Of course you've seen at least one tv commercial saying: "become..., get..., do... in three easy steps". Unfortunately, when it comes to faith in God, it will require more than "3 steps" and they won't be easy. When talking about faith, we must consider the life of Abraham, the father of faith. From the day that God told him: Genesis 12:1-2; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 25:7. We can say that Abraham literally "walked by faith"! Do you think that Abraham's faith grew in just "3 easy steps"? How much faith he had to have to "be willing" to sacrifice his own son, believing that God would raise him (son) from the dead? "believing is seeing" is the way God chose for us (believers) to live. Galatians 3:6. Remember Jesus' words to Martha? John 11:40. The reason Jesus asked, Luke 18:8, is because "biblical faith" (believing is seeing) is not "essential" in today's post-modern christianism. That's probably the reason why we don't see "God's glory" as Abraham, David, Elijah, Martha, etc., saw it. Who's to blame? We, who call ourselves "believers"! God does not change. Jesus Christ does not change. I'm reading a book about the persecuted church in china and i read something that made me realize how "shallow" my faith is. This is what i read: "As I was writing these words, the communist police beat to death one of the young preachers (a sister) who works with us in Hunan. In another area, Northeast China, they took five into the station and poured scalding water over them until their skin began to peel and beat them until their front teeth came out. Then they mocked and challenged them to praise the Lord as they had been doing in church when they were arrested. The chinese christians began to sing beautiful songs of praise. These wicked men were so ashamed of what they have done when they saw the presence of the Lord in these young preachers that they released them all. Incidents like this occur daily all over China" (The Gospel Under Fire by Wm. Thomas Bray with Nora Lam). Right now i'm asking myself: "Would i be willing, like those believers in China or Paul and Silas (Acts 16), after being tortured to sing praises to my Lord? Acts 5:41. The reason why the church is growing so much in China, spiritually and numbers, is that the "real" Christians have to be 100% committed to Christ, therefore they see the Power and Glory of God. There's no place for "lukewarmness" or complacency in china, you either belong to the "government's church" and have nothing to fear or you belong to the Body of Christ and you will be persecuted, as it says in Revelation 12:11. May God help us to love Him more than we love ourselves.