You can never have enough faith

With Jesus it’s possible to believe what would otherwise be unbelievable. We’ve said before, God is Jehovah Jireh. He provides what He requires, even if it’s faith.

Jun 12, 2025

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

I almost died in the Guatemalan jungle.

I’m only slightly exaggerating. No, I didn’t almost die, but I sure could have. The last time I was in Guatemala (which was WAY too long ago), our team ended up in some areas of the jungle that weren’t exactly the safest. But I have never gone on a mission’s trip with the intent to be safe.

We reached our first village early, and while we were waiting, we heard about another village that hadn’t been visited yet. Except, it was on the other side of the river.

Here in the U.S., crossing a river isn’t that big a deal. You just need to find a bridge or a ferry or some means to get to the other side. In this part of Guatemala, there wasn’t a bridge. There wasn’t a ferry either. All we had was an old, hollowed-out canoe with a 2x4 to paddle and steer.

But canoes are easy, right? I’d been in all sorts of boats before with no problems. It’s just that I hadn’t climbed into a hollowed-out canoe directly from a root-laden riverbank on the water where the current was rushing at top speed.

I didn’t fall in. We made it across without any trouble. But I’m not going to lie and tell you I wasn’t thinking about my Red Cross swimming certificate when we were at the halfway point. And I was also wondering if the river had piranhas in it.

I hadn’t been in that canoe before. I didn’t know the skinny Guatemalan boy who was ferrying our team across one at a time. I just trusted that the canoe would hold me, that it wasn’t going to leak, that the young man could guide it with his handy brick of wood, and that we’d make it to the other side without significant incident. And we did.

When you think about it that way, there was a lot more faith involved in that abbreviated canoe adventure than it might seem on the surface.

Faith is a complicated topic at the best of times. Thanks to a lot of prosperity gospel preachers and warm-fuzzy-out-of-context Bible verse memes, many people have come to believe that faith is something you feel. If you have faith, you’ll feel good about it.

I hate to burst your bubble, but faith doesn’t feel great. Faith isn’t warm and fuzzy. It’s not the warm blanket you curl up with at night. That’s hope. That’s love. But faith is armor. Faith is a shield. Faith is what you take into battle every day. It’s awkward and heavy and slippery sometimes.

Faith comes easy to some people. Some believers have Faith as a spiritual gift and can trust God as easily as they draw breath. For the rest of us, we have had to fight for it. God has had to take the rest of us on journeys that repeatedly show us that our way doesn’t work and that His way is the only way. Some of us have had to walk a lot of miles to learn to trust Him. Others of us have had to jump off bridges trusting that Jesus would catch us.

It’s natural for our faith to falter. When we realize we aren’t in control, it’s scary. And even if you know Jesus is in control, sometimes we need help truly believing it. That’s the beauty of our God: When your faith is weak and when you just can’t believe, ask Him to give you faith.

Yes, our great God will give you more faith if you ask Him for it.

This beautiful verse, this beautiful prayer came from a father who was seeking the miraculous. He believed Jesus could do it, but he still had doubts. That’s normal. That’s natural. That’s human. But he wanted more faith. He wanted to believe without doubt, and that’s what he asked for help with.

With Jesus it’s possible to believe what would otherwise be unbelievable. We’ve said before, God is Jehovah Jireh. He provides what He requires, even if it’s faith.

Jesus made you whole, my friend, and that includes your capacity for faith. But in the moments where you need more, just ask.