Focus: Growing Faith (Pt.2)

Text: 2Thes.1:3

"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your FAITH GROWETH EXCEEDINGLY, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth."

Faith, like any plant, grows. Paul reports that the faith of believers in Thessaloniki is growing increasingly and immeasurably. Your faith is a living thing and has the ability to growing larger, influencing others and drawing them into the kingdom of Christ.

Faith functions in degrees or levels. In Rom.1:17, Paul says, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith TO faith…" Did you notice that phrase or expression, "From faith to faith"? That tells you that faith rises from one point to another. Faith develops and advances from level to level.

God says to Moses concerning Israel, "I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is NO faith" (Dt.32:20). Some people have no faith in them. They are full of fears, doubts and unbelief, and it is dangerous to live a life of no faith in God. Paul says, "For all men have NOT faith" (2Thes.3:2). The difference between one man and another is the presence or absence of faith. Faith functions as a shield to those who possess it. It shields them from the fiery darts of the enemy. It establishes a firm foundation for an eternal relationship with God.

You can move from the place of no faith to the place of faith. Jesus Christ says to His disciples, "Have faith in God" (Mk.11:22). When they despaired of their lives in the face of a life-claiming situation, and he had to come to their rescue, Jesus Christ asked them, "Where is your faith?" (Lk.8:25). Believers in Christ are saved by faith, and they step into the realm of experiencing the miraculous by faith. Christ heals the paralytic man of his paralysis by seeing the faith of his friends (Mt.9:2). Others benefit from your faith. God can use your faith to deliver others from their pain.

You can move from the place of no faith to the place of faith, and from the place of faith to the place of a little faith. When His disciples worry about basic needs of life, Jesus Christ says to them "O ye of little faith" (Mt.6:30). When they face a storm and fear for their lives, He says to them, "O ye of little faith" (Mt.8:26). When Peter sees a great storm and loses his faith to fear and doubt, Jesus Christ says to him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Mt.14:31). When they fail to take into account Christ's miracle of past provision, He says to them, "O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?" (Mt.16:8). 

If the need be, Christ can do in the present the miracles that He did in the past, because He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. In another instance He says to them, "If ye have faith as a GRAIN of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Mt.17:20). In yet another place, He says to them, "If ye have faith, and doubt not…" (Mt.21:21). In Mark, He says to them, "Why are ye SO fearful? how is it that ye have NO faith?" (Mk.4:40). A grain of mustard seed is very little - so minute, so insignificant - yet it is capable of great growth and fruition. It is different from "little faith," which has nothing to do with size, but rather with durability. Little faith refers to faith that lacks durable quality in it. It is a short lived kind of faith. It does not stand the test of time. It's a fair weather faith. It fails as soon as it is tested. Real faith when tested is triumphant. It beats the odds and weathers the storms. Again, the fearful is faithless. "So fearful" amounts to "no faith." Faith exits when fear enters.

You can move from the place of no faith to the place of a great faith. Christ says to a woman of insistent and persistent faith, "O woman, GREAT is thy faith" (Mt.15:28). He says to His Jewish audience, "I say unto you, I have not found SO GREAT faith, no, not in Israel" (Lk.7:9). You can move from "great faith" to "so great faith." Your faith is capable of growing exceedingly.

The apostles say to the Lord, "Increase our faith" (Lk.17:5). Prayer can foster the growth of faith. Like Stephen, you can be full of faith, and like Barnabas, you can be "full of the Holy Ghost and of faith" (Act.6:5,8; 11:24). Your faith can be increased (2Cor.10:15). You can have "all faith" - a mountain-moving faith (1Cor.13:2). Your faith can continue and become "grounded and settled" (Col.1:23).

Paul tells us that Abraham was not "weak in faith," but he was rather "strong in faith" (Rom.4:19,20). As something alive and active, faith grows, and like the Thessalonian believers, your faith can grow exceedingly. Feed your faith with the word of God. Grow it through prayer. Exercise it by obedience. Overcome the world by faith, and experience the reality of God by it.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter