Just about every parent gets the privilege of teaching their child how to drive. I say privilege because even in those moments of utter frustration, when you are convinced your mental state has been shattered both physically and mentally as a result of an almost head on collision with a city bus, you can take joy in the memories you will cherish along with the knowledge that someday your children, G-d willing, will have children of their own whom they will have to teach to drive! There is a great demonstration of faith in drivers training: faith on the part of the parent who is teaching and faith on the part of the child who is learning. Until the child gets into the drivers seat and begins learning to drive the parents faith in the child's ability cannot be developed. The same can be said about the child, as their faith in their own ability to drive cannot develop without active practice. It is only with repeated steps of faith shown by both the child who is learning and the parent who is teaching that driving ability can be proven.

In the Torah portion G-d commands Abram to get up and go away from everything he knew, and to trust & rely solely upon him. Abram chose to obey G-d and begin his journey of faith, although imperfectly. He made mistakes from the start, first by bringing along Lot and then secondly leaving the Land of Promise for Egypt almost as soon as he arrived due to famine. We do not see in Abram spiritual perfection, but instead spiritual progression. As Abram took steps of faith in G-d, G-d responded with promise and assurance that Abram's faith would not be in vain. Taking steps of faith can often place us in positions of uncertainty. Abram experienced this after he acted in faith to save his nephew Lot. As our portion relates, G-d provided a great victory, but the victory left Abram afraid of retaliation. G-d encouraged Abram with his promise of protection and sets the stage for what I believe to be the pinnacle moment of Abram's faith development. In chapter 15 G-d grants to Abram righteousness in response to Abram's placing his full trust in G-d. Developing faith comes as a result of continual actions on our part which demonstrates our obedience to G-d's instructions and our willingness to test G-d's promises.

Our Haftarah portion teaches us that all the strength and power we need for developing lives of faith is found in G-d. G-d can't work with the strong and self reliant, only with the weak and humble. G-d strengthens those who learn to actively trust in him, who learn to recognize their insufficiencies while at the same time recognize G-d's abundant resource. Problems and difficulties are opportunities for us to wait on G-d, to rely on his supernatural intervention in our moment of crisis. Developing faith comes as a result of recognizing our inadequacy and G-d's sufficiency in the day to day difficulties of life.

In the Brit Chadasha portion we read James' challenge to the believers to live out their faith by changing the way they live. A true, growing faith will bring genuine life change, even as we saw in the life of our father Abraham. Often believers read and study about principles of faith and examples of faithful living, but choose to not take serious action and adopt a life of faith themselves! We prefer instead to give lip service to G-d's promise and character in our religious activity, but live our personal lives by secular principles like the non-believing world around us. As James points out, true religion is holistic and life changing. Developing faith requires a commitment to the integration of our knowledge of G-d and his instructions into the values and priorities of our lives.

How has your faith in G-d been developing lately? Just like becoming a good driver demands the faith to learn, and the faith of a teacher in our ability to learn, so developing faith demands continual actions on our part to demonstrate our obedience to G-d's instructions and our willingness to test G-d's promises, recognizing our inadequacy and G-d's sufficiency, and integrating our knowledge of G-d and his instructions into the every day values and priorities of our lives. As G-d was patience with Abraham, so he is patient with us to develop into people of faith.