Everybody dies sooner or later, and we all know that. Many people are afraid of death, and most are very nervous about it. Even many who say they aren’t anxious or afraid are deceiving themselves. The main issue about death and dying are all the unknowns. Most deal with their impending death and that of their loved ones by simply ignoring it. The medical business makes a lot of money by keeping people alive just a little bit longer. It isn’t braveness or toughness that makes death a non-issue or even a positive issue; it is our faith.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

Philippians 1:23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

So, we all want to grow strong in our faith so that the other side of death is more attractive to us than this side. Also, so that we can deal with sickness and problems with confidence, peace, and joy because we trust God totally.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, because your faith is greatly enlarged.

Romans 4:20-21 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

How do we grow our faith? How do we become strong in our faith like many of the Biblical heroes in the Bible? Many of us know how to grow tomatoes or zucchini, but how do we pro-actively grow our faith to be stronger every day we live.

Many steps, activities, and disciplines will help us grow in our faith, but let me suggest one that very few people know about. Faith is being confident in what we can’t see, walking by faith, not by sight, but our faith grows by things we can see, hear, and experience. God provides us with life visuals in creation that will build our faith, but most people miss them. The Apostle John in the Epistle of First John says, “what we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.” In Romans 1:20, the Apostle Paul says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.

A great visual faith builder provided by God are flowers. I just bought a package of ten different kinds of flower seeds that, when planted, will result in beautiful flowers. In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul says that we are now like a seed, but when we die, that seed changes into something else. How many times more beautiful is a flower compared to a seed. For “Mother’s Day,” some of our kids bought Patty an orchid plant; it is gorgeous.

Faith is built little by little with many repetitions of what builds our faith. I have programmed myself so that whenever I see a flower in real life or a picture, I tell myself, “That is me with my new, glorified body; I can’t wait! Now, I am just an old shriveled up, ugly seed.”