Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
-II Thessalonians 1:2, 3
Here is a passage of scripture that challenges us to possess a faith that is living and active. If our faith is thriving then it is growing. And if it is growing then it is accomplishing God's will in our lives. Paul instructs the believers in II Thessalonians to continue on with their faith that is growing. He has already told them about the coming of the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:13-18) . Countless people live as though the Lord will never return, and they live as though the judgment of God will never come. We know that the day of the Lord will one day come, and we believe this by faith. Therefore we strive to be ready for that day when it happens. Until then we seek to have faith that is growing. The last thing we want is for our faith to stagnate. Instead we want it to grow and take us ever deeper into our relationship with Christ. The greater our faith, then the closer is our walk with Him.
Paul’s hope was that the followers of Christ grow in grace. He desired for them to have the grace of Christ in their lives and that they also have the peace that comes from the Lord. We can possess these attributes through a relationship with Christ. We are called in scripture to be ever growing closer to the Lord. We cannot do that apart from faith that is vibrant and growing. The scripture says that their faith was growing more and more all of the time.
Let that be said of us. In a time when peoples’ faith the Lord in diminishing, let us have a faith that is growing, thriving, and leading us to daily spiritual victory.
