Is Your Faith Growing More and More?

“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 NIV)

What is faith, in this biblical context? What does this faith look like, in word and in deed? Well, the word “faith” means “persuasion.” In this case, since it is faith in Jesus Christ, it is the divine persuasion of God as to our sinfulness, of God’s righteousness, and of our need to repent of (turn from, die to) sin, by the grace of God, and to commit our lives to following our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands, empowered by God. We believe God and his Word, and so we surrender to God and we obey the teachings he has for us.

So, if we who believe in Jesus are increasing in faith, what should that look like? Well, the more that we know God and what God has for us to be and to do, because we want to know and to do his will, because we are studying the Scriptures in their correct biblical context, the more we should be obeying him in doing his will. We should be maturing in our walks of faith on a daily basis, becoming more and more like Jesus in godly character and in doing and speaking the kinds of things he did and that he spoke to people.

We should be stepping out of our comfort zones more and more, even more willing to speak truth to the people, many of whom we know will not listen to us, and some of whom will mock us, laugh at us, disregard us as crazy, and otherwise just ignore us because they think that we are religious fanatics of some kind. And some of them may rebuke us, and treat us like trash, and lie about us, and treat us with disdain and abuse. But know they treated Jesus and his New Testament apostles and the prophets before them the same.

But Christian persecution isn’t just about attacks on us and on our character because of what we believe and put into practice. But this about attacks on the truth of the gospel of our salvation. This is about people falsely claiming to believe in Jesus and to speak the truth of the gospel who are, in reality, “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” out to steal, kill, and destroy, not only the people of God, but the message of the gospel of our salvation. And so they teach the Scriptures out of context, and they speak lies disguised as truth.

So they teach God’s grace as free license to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin against God, only now without feelings of guilt. And they teach that, even if you are living in deliberate and habitual sin, that you can just “claim who you are in Christ” to relieve any feelings of guilt. But we are not “in Christ” by lip service only. “In Christ” means we have died with Christ to sin and we are now walking in obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, in practice. So don’t believe the lies! Believe God’s Word (in context).

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18] 

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

So my soul longeth after You

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

To You alone may my spirit yield

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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Is Your Faith Growing More and More

An Original Work / February 9, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love