Why It’s Important for You to Grow and Live with Faith Today
By God’s grace, the small church we were serving was growing. Many of the new members were also new to the faith. So, it was important to offer a way for these followers to learn the basic truths of their newfound belief.
Rev felt it might be a blessing to everyone if he held this class on Sunday morning during the regular Bible Study time. This meant that those who had been Christians their entire lives and those who were just learning for the first time would be able to study and grow together.
And it turned out to be a wonderful blessing! It quickly became one of everyone’s favorite studies. The new believers felt safe asking their questions and the discussions seemed to bless and encourage us all.
We need to be know the basics of faith before we can grow in faith:
- The Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of God.
- God is Triune – One God/ Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Jesus is 100% God and 100% Man.
- All people are sinners.
- Believers are saved by grace through faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
- There is life after death – heaven and hell are real places.
The writer to the Hebrews refers to those basics as “milk.”
You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.
Hebrews 5:12b–13
Those truths are the essential foundation of our faith! However, you and I are to grow in faith. It’s impossible to simply exist in faith. We will either be growing or wilting.
Like little ones, we need to move on from “milk” to solid food.
Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
Hebrews 5:14
You and I are called to a lifetime of SEEKing. We are to feast on God’s Word and open ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We have been created for a relationship with the Lord and for fellowship with one another that we might encourage each other in God’s truth.
Then . . . we will grow in faith as we apply what we have learned. When we not only know about but trust and obey God’s will as He reveals it through Scripture.
AND we also carefully test every teaching against the truths of God’s Word and what they say about Jesus.
So, are you ready! Let’s keep growing so we can enjoy the wonderful feast the Lord has provided for us.
A Prayer to Grow and Live in Faith
Father, please forgive me. I know You ask me to have child-like faith but I’m often guilty of being childish and foolish. I accept the words of people without testing them against the truth of Your Word. I depend on the ideas and traditions of the church without prayerfully SEEKing Your wisdom and guidance. I’m so sorry.
I want to grow in faith. I want to live with a longing to know Your truth. I want to follow Your will and obey Your commands. Please fill me with Your Spirit. Please give me a passion for Your Word and a love for the time I spend with You in prayer. Please help me build on the firm foundation of the faith I have in Jesus and stand strong on the basics of that faith. And by Your grace, help me put into practice the things You teach me every day.
I give myself to You, Lord. I give You my heart, my mind, my body, my soul. Please fill me with Your Spirit. Help me overcome the world. (1 John 5:4) Light my path and guide my ways. (Psalm 119:105) Help me grow in Your love. (Ephesians 3:17) And help me show You how much I love You by keeping Your commandments. (John 14:15) By Your grace, help me grow and live in faith. (Hebrews 10:28)
I pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
Dwight Moody wrote:
I prayed for Faith, and thought that some day Faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But Faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Now Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God’. I had closed my Bible, and prayed for Faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and Faith has been growing ever since.
May we stand on the truth-filled basics of our faith and surrender ourselves to the Spirit that He might help us grow and live in faith every day.
On today’s note write:
Lord, I give myself to You. Please help me grow in faith.
May God bless you today and fill you with faith, hope, and love.
It should be the sincere longing of every Christian heart to grow in faith, Deb. God wants to mature us in His love and a deeper understanding of His Word. I loved hearing about that class Rev put together – wish I’d had something like that to attend when I became a Christian.
Blessings!
Thank you, Martha! I love hearing from fellow believers and the ways God has grown their faith. It made that class one we will always remember as a great blessing. Pray you’re enjoying a blessing-filled day!
I find it difficult to think that the Bible is inerrant. Parts of it had to have changed over the centuries.
I understand, James. I know you are not alone in that and there are even those who teach that and believe the same. However, I trust and believe what the Bible says about itself and the God who gave it. Here is a page of verses about the accuracy and inerrancy of Scripture. (https://www.openbible.info/topics/inerrancy_of_the_bible) You see, I believe two very important truths. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the Holy Spirit is alive and well and active. God has not changed the truth He wants people to know about Him and the Holy Spirit who inspired the original writers continues to be more than able to work in and through those who have copied and translated it throughout the generations.
May God be with you and bless you as you continue to SEEK Him.
I believe it is very difficult for Christians new or otherwise to believe in what the Bible says when the church is not preaching from the Bible. A l9t of priests, vicars etc don’t even think the Bible is as relevant when talking about hell or heaven or a lot of other things. I haven’t been back to church since they closed because of Covid. I have become more and more disillusioned with the lack of proper preaching and incorrect teaching. Which makes me sound as if I know better than anybody else which is obviously not the case. Apparently “they” will be changing the words of the Lord’s Prayer because people think God leads people into temptation. why don’t they just educate people about the Hebrew language? Oops I seem to have gone off on a moan. Blessings Deb x Angela
Angela, I like that saying, “I’ve gone off on a moan.” I’m going to remember that one. I keep praying that people will have a desire to dig into God’s Word themselves, that they will want to learn and understand rather than just settling for ear-tickling. Thanks so much for sharing your concerns . . . and lifting your prayers. God bless you!