For my birthday this week, my children got me a Keurig coffee maker. To say I love it would be an understatement. The coffee not only tastes better but it’s fun to make! I suspect the ‘newness’ will wear off but for now, it’s a blast!

I had my previous Bunn coffee maker for more than a decade. It’s a workhorse! But let’s face it…it just took too long to brew! It was time for an upgrade.

I’ve been praying for some pretty big things lately, which have not yet come to pass. Here is the question I’ve been pondering:

Is my faith, like my coffee maker, due for an upgrade?

The Bible tells us that everyone is given a measure of faith (Romans 12:13) and that a mustard-sized amount of faith can move mountains (Matthew 17:20).

That seems to be sufficient enough, doesn’t it? I mean if you already have some faith “at birth” and it only takes a miniscule amount to move a mountain, why would you need an upgrade?

Then it hit me – perhaps it’s not the amount of faith, but the exercise of it. Let’s talk this out…

You could have faith the size of the universe but if it’s never acted upon, do you really have any? On the contrary, you could have mustard seed faith and you act on it every day, so do you have a lot? How would you know?

Easy…there’d be results. Tangible results. Let’s look at a couple of examples from the Bible:

The woman with the issue of blood had faith that if she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, she’d be healed of a twelve-year malady. She acted on her faith and she was healed (Mark 5:25-34).

Peter had faith in Jesus’ words to cast his nets out after a fruitless night of fishing, and caught so many fish that they almost broke the nets (Luke 5:1-11).

I could go on and on and not with just New Testament stories but oodles from the Old Testament.  What’s the common thread? A simple math equation:

Faith plus action equals results.

We may have faith that God will do this or that. But what action have we taken? I may have faith that the light switch will turn on the light but if I never use it, I’ll stay in the dark.

Likewise, we may “know” or have faith that God will do something but how are we acting on it? Is our faith alive? Is it active? Or is it merely head knowledge?

When you truly believe that someone will do something for you, do you worry? Do you fret? Do you call them every five minutes? Nope. You rest, knowing that they are trustworthy and will do what they say they will do EVEN IF you don’t see it the minute you ask for it.

Our faith in God should work the same way. We do not have to beg and plead. We do not have to lose sleep worrying if He will get it done. We need to come to a place where we can rest, knowing that He will do what He said He will do. Why??

He’s done it millions of times!

Let’s face it, we all want what we want when we want it. I want a faster cup of coffee. I want answers to prayers the moment I ask. Yet God is not in a hurry. He wants us to trust Him completely with whatever “ask” we put in front of Him and whatever timing He determines is best for us.

Immature faith wants it now. Mature faith requires patience. Immature faith gets mad when it doesn’t get what it wants. Mature faith walks in love.

Maybe we don’t need more faith or better faith. Maybe we just need to act on the faith we already have and as we do, it will get bigger and better.

Here’s a good test of our faith: Are we resting? Are we trusting? Are we being patient as we await the answer?

If not, we may need a faith upgrade.