How Do We Get Faith?

Lately I've enjoyed using biblegateway.com to look up all of the verses that speak on the subject of faith.  Faith seems to have been spoken of in so many different lights, and yet it is a crucial part of, well, our faith.  Case in point.  So I've been trying to learn more about it and how we get it, and the search has been so so good!  It's incredible how much the word of God can enrich one's life.  The truths revealed in the scripture about the Christian life go deeper and deeper the more you dig.

So what have I learned?  Well, I think the most significant thing I've learned is that faith is a gift of God.  It is not something I can muster on my own.  Romans 12:3 instructs us not to think of ourselves more highly then we ought, but in accordance with the measure of faith that God has "assigned" us.  I love John Piper's explanation of this passage.  He points out that faith is what we use to exercise God's other gifts to us.  All the faith we have comes from Him, so we cannot boast about our faith to utilize His grace.  Paul, in this passage, goes on to talk about how this faith and our different gifts are allotted in different measures so that we as the church can lean on and support each other.  We can't stand alone.

Another passage that has greatly intrigued me is Luke 17:5-10.  The disciples, here, ask Jesus to increase their faith, and Jesus' responds,

“If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.  Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, and He reminds them that they should serve Him and do their duty and consider themselves unworthy servants.  God does not grant faith based on our merit, but according to His pleasure.  According to Piper in this article, Jesus is telling the disciples that the quantity of their faith is not the issue.  Even a mustard seed's worth of faith can move a mulberry tree.  The object of our faith is the issue.  If our faith is in God, we don't need much.  His power works with small amounts of faith.  He seems to believe that comparing faith to a mustard seed refers to the amount, or size, of the faith.  I've read other articles, however, that feel there are other qualities of the mustard seed which are referred to in this comparison.

The mustard seed analogy is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but the second part of this passage seems clear.  What the disciples needed was to serve faithfully, utilizing that which God had given them for His glory.  Just as a servant does not expect special favors from their master we must serve gratefully and in humility.  Perhaps in doing so, God will increase our faith, but it is according to His pleasure, not our works.

I haven't finished working through all of the passages on faith yet, but so far I've been blessed by the search for understanding here.  If anyone can recommend a good read on the mustard seed analogy, do share!