Faith must begin somewhere! It is not mere emotion or intellectual capacity but an act of the will; one decides to believe freely. God has given mankind the power of volition and freedom of choice to believe to disbelieve in Him. A forced faith would not be faith. The conception of faith arises in the Word of God itself as it is the gift of God as one hears the preaching of the Word of God; God has chosen the foolish means of the world to defeat the wisdom of man. So Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by the hearing and the hearing of the Word of God." That's it, it's a gift of grace but God intends for us to exercise this faith; it's His gift but our act!
I might add that God plants the seed and opens the heart! (cf. Acts 16:14; 14:27). He can make the unwilling willing (cf. Phil. 2:13) and make believers out of us by grace. In fact, we believe through grace (cf. Acts 18:27). Faith is a gift and we cannot take credit for it but are stewards of it. (cf. Romans 12:3; cf. 2 Pet. 1:1).
Faith needs an object to be valid; it is only as reliable as its object. You can have strong faith in the wrong object or God and it is invalid and does no good. God doesn't demand perfect faith, but only unfeigned, sincere faith (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:5). Paul said that the Jews were zealous for God but according to knowledge (cf Romans 10:2; Prov. 19:2). Jesus said to those skeptics that if anyone is willing to do God's will, then he shall know the truth (cf. John 7:17).
Only in a world where faith is difficult can it exist! Easy-believism is a self-contradiction biblically speaking. The road to faith has never nor meant to be an easy one. We all have doubts; the disciple who wanted a healing told Jesus: "I believe, help mine unbelief." That means that doubt is not the opposite of faith but an element of it; it's not just a religious problem but a human one--we have doubts or are capable of them. But we believe in many things we don't have all the answers to and doubt can survive alongside faith. Everyone's faith must be tested in fire to see if it's genuine (cf. 1 Pet. 1:7).
We all have a "measure of faith" given by God and are appropriately tested and responsible for it as a steward of this gift (cf. Romans 12:3). But not all have faith (saving faith that is) though everyone believes in something. It can take more faith to deny God, for instance, than to just accept him by default and put Him to the test: "Taste and see that the LORD is good." (cf. Psalm 34:8). Our God invites scrutiny! Test God in this manner because the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
We all have trials, tribulations, and adversities to endure by faith. But if you wonder why, the same sun melts the butter hardens the clay. It is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God (cf. Acts 14:22). Similar events sow faith in some and agnosticism or skepticism in others. God is testing our hearts and motives. He doesn't want us to merely believe because of fear of hell as some kind of fire insurance, but as a loving response to God's love and grace. We love Him because He first loved us! (cf. 1 John 4:19). Perfect love casts out fear (cf. 1 John 4:18).
Now, faith isn't about how strong you believe or much you are convinced of the truths of the Bible but in your application of them. It's more about how much you obey than how much you believe. That's why the only test of genuine faith is obedience (cf. Heb. 3:18-19). Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyr from the Nazis, claimed: "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes." These two are juxtaposed in Scripture and we must not divide what God has joined together. Repentance is also linked to faith and goes hand in hand in complementary fashion (cf. Acts. 20:21; Heb. 6:1). In that case, it may not be a matter of having enough faith but not having a thorough enough repentance.
Remember, the struggle with faith is not lack of faith so much as faith itself. Only in a world of disbelief existing can faith exist. God refuses to make Himself as obvious as the sun in the sky to believe but wants us to search with all our hearts to find Him. What pleases God is faith, not intelligence or wisdom (cf. Heb. 11:6). Jesus was asked to do miracles on demand and to do a biggie miracle to impress the Pharisees, but Jesus wouldn't accommodate them because they had the prophets to bear witness of Him for the Scriptures bear witness of Him (cf. John 5:39). He said that despite His miracles, they would [not could not] believe in Him (cf. John 12:37). Soli Deo Gloria!
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