GROWING IN FAITH PT2.

Last year, when I wrote part 1, I was in New Jersey spending time with my family for Thanksgiving. It was a very eye-opening visit. It prompted me to write about the importance of growing in faith. You could be a professing believer in Christ for 20 years, but after your first year of being on fire for Jesus, your fire began to die out, and you never grew beyond that first year. So, you spent 19 years in a loop, never really growing more than what you did when you first believed. You attend church every Sunday, and you even say your prayers before bed and before every meal. You feel like an accomplished Christian because you do these things. But you don’t grow in your faith. You don’t even pick up your bible outside of Sunday anymore because your week is busy. You spend every year just repeating that first year when you were chasing God. So your 20 years is really 1 year on repeat.

Growing in faith is evidence of our relationship with God. The more we grow, the closer we get to God. If we are not growing as we should, it becomes evident in our lives. We start to look like the rest of the world. This is what I witnessed when I visited my family. My aunt, who I love dearly, believes in Jesus, but the things I witnessed from her really disturbed my spirit. It had me wondering if she was truly saved!? It pains me to even think that, but Jesus said we would know His people from their fruit, and her fruit was rotten! As time went on, I realised that the problem was she had stopped persuing God. She wasn’t a part of any church. She even confessed to not picking up her bible anymore. She was responding to everything out of her flesh instead of the Spirit. When I would try to point out these things and guide her back to the word of God, I was met with such resistance and anger. My time spent with her felt like I was in a spiritual battle that I wasn’t prepared for! Unfortunately, as I write this blog, my aunt refuses to communicate with me. I’m ok with that because, like I told her, I will always stand on the word of God because I fear the LORD! The one thing I remember her saying when I told her that being a Christian meant we had to deny ourselves was this, “but it’s hard!.”

MATTHEW 7:13-14 “ENTER BY THE NARROW GATE. FOR THE GATE IS WIDE AND THE WAY EASY THAT LEADS TO DISTRUCTION, AND THOSE WHO ENTER BY IT ARE MANY. FOR THE GATE IS NARROW AND THE WAY IS HARD THAT LEADS TO LIFE, AND THOSE WHO FIND IT ARE FEW.” Jesus warned us that following Him would be hard. That is the life of a believer! But he also promised us a helper when we placed our faith in Him and decided to choose the narrow path. The Holy Spirit is with us as we journey! God in spirit lives within us, leading us on this difficult path. We don’t do anything in our own strength. But if we stop seeking the Spirit while we journey like nomads, we will find ourselves stumbling on to the wider path and fooling ourselves to believe it is the right path because it’s easy. There is a great proverb that says that there is a path before each person that seems right but ends in death. If we stop seeking the Spirit for wisdom, we then start to do whatever feels right in our own eyes.

We live in a world, so opposed to God, it feels like we are in an episode of the twilight zone. If we are not careful, the culture will infect us, and we will start to look like friends of the world. The things that once grieved us when we first believed will no longer affect us in the same way. We will become desensitized to sin and start to make excuses for the things we know offend God. Then we will start to tell ourselves that we don’t need to go to church and be a part of the body, because we don’t need the body, why, when we can readily tune into one of our many social media pastors from the comfort of our beds. We will tell ourselves that we don’t need to read the bible because we’ve read it before . Like  it’s just some regular book that holds no power. Then, before we know it, we will start to fall back into our old bondages that Jesus set us free from. Satan will sit back and laugh at us as we exchange our freedom and return back to being a slave to sin, chained up with the other unbelievers walking that wide road away from God.

I don’t know about you, but I have been feeling this shift happening throughout the church. I feel like we are in a season where it is imperative that we seek to draw closer to God and grow in our faith! My fear is that if we remain stagnant, we will not be able to endure to the end and receive our crown of life. We run the risk of becoming like the five virgins who didn’t have enough oil in their lamp and missed the wedding! We are seeing a rise in so many false teachers as well as false doctrines, and people are being led astray. God is exposing those who have built their foundations on sand instead of the rock. People are deconstructing because they can’t handle the narrow road. It’s clear that many people are doing religion with God instead of a relationship, and faith is wavering as a result. JAMES 1:2-4 “DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHEN TROUBLES OF ANY KIND COME YOUR WAY, CONSIDER IT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GREAT JOY. FOR YOU KNOW THAT WHEN YOUR FAITH IS TESTED, YOUR ENDURANCE HAS A CHANCE TO GROW. SO LET IT GROW, FOR WHEN YOUR ENDURANCE IS FULLY DEVELOPED, YOU WILL BE PERFECT AND COMPLETE, NEEDING NOTHING.” The hard narrow path is meant to breed endurance through the testing of our faith, and if our foundation is firm, our faith strengthens, and we become more mature. The hard road is not meant to destroy us. This is why faith is so important. A strong faith keeps us obedient. You can’t say you have faith when your life does not reflect what you believe. As the word says, faith without action is dead!

God promised that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. I emplore you to take your relationship seriously with Him, for your life depends on it. If your faith isn’t where it needs to be, it’s time to start working out your salvation with fear and trembling! I look at what’s going on in the world and it excites me, because we are on this timeline of end time events, which is moving with such speed that I sometimes wonder if Jesus will return for His chuch in my lifetime. The bible is not only a book full of wisdom and teachings, but it is a historical and prophetic book. A big part of our growing in faith is due to the bible. If we are not reading it and seeking to understand it, how can we expect to have an unshakeable faith needed in the times we live? We are setting ourselves up for failure! PSALM 119:30 “I HAVE CHOSEN THE WAY OF FAITHFULNESS; I HAVE SET MY HEART ON YOUR LAWS.”

We are meant to seek to become mature Christians. Some of us have become unteachable, which is not a good place to be in. It’s time to become like children again, hungry to learn and grow. We are in a spiritual war, and too many of us are not wearing all our pieces of armour. We are running out into battle without our shield of faith, which is meant to protect us from the fiery arrows of the enemy. God has provided everything we need to finish our race, to be victorious in this battle. But if we are not wise and prepared, we will be destroyed. It’s time to sharpen up our swords, which is the word of God. It’s time for the body of Christ to unite, for iron sharpens iron. If you are looking to truly grow in your faith, here are some suggestions. Join a church. It’s time to have a spiritual covering. You were not created to be a lone ranger Christian. You are a functioning part of the body of Jesus Christ. Ok, I hear you when you say you tried it and it didn’t work out for you. Well, I say try again. Find a different church that is solid in theology and ask God to heal your heart of church hurt. That is what it looks like to be a mature Christian. Create a habit of reading your bible daily. Buy a study bible to help you in your personal reading so you truly understand the word of God. Find a believer who is wise and allow them to speak into your life. Go to them for godly counsel instead of looking at what the culture says about a thing. These are just a few suggestions, but they are so impactful to your walk, and I speak from experience. I have been a believer for 6 years. I am young in the faith, but I am mature because of the word of God. I am young in the faith, but I am mature because of church. I am young in the faith, but I am mature because of fellowship with my sisters and brothers who hold me accountable and who hold my hand on this narrow hard road. I thank God for placing them in my life. My prayer is that 2025 will be a year of growth in our walks with God. May our faith endure until we are reunited with our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ!