I found, in Goodwill of all places, a collection of Martin Luther's writings. It occurred to me that I've never actually read any of his writings. Granted, I don't know how closely a translation comes to the original, and I don't read German, but I feel that reading his writings might help me in my Christian walk.
As I was reading his Preface to Romans, I came across this quote:

Faith is a living and unshakeable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.This kind of confidence in God's grace, this sort of knowledge of it, makes us joyful, high-spirited, and eager in our relations with God and with all mankind. That is what the Holy Spirit effects through faith.

This is the kind of faith that I wish to have. Too often, my natural sinful self keeps rearing its ugly head, and I struggle. Luther offers this solution:

Offer up your prayers to God, and ask Him to create faith in you; otherwise you will always lack faith, no matter how you try to deceive yourself, or what your efforts or ability.

I hope that I'm not deceiving myself when I say that I have faith in God. I know in principle that He will never let me down. But do I know it in practice? How many times has He kept me safe in dangerous weather? How many times has He kept my loved ones safe? How many prayers has He answered? Even knowing this, though, Satan still worms his way in. It then behooves me to ask God to cleanse me from all sin and to stay close and to help me to stay close to Him. Regardless of whether I have faith, God is there. My belief or unbelief doesn't change His existence, as much as some atheists seem to reason that "If I don't believe in Him, He doesn't exist." One can decide that they don't believe in gravity, but they'll find out real quickly that it exists the next time they fall. My prayer is that He will keep me filled with faith....the only reason I believe in Him in the first place is because He gave me the grace to believe in Him...no one can come to Him unless He opens their eyes.