Stronger faith

Romans 4:20b He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.

 It seems so elementary in some ways, yet I still see this principle as important enough in my own life to bear repeating for my own benefit once again: My faith will grow stronger every time I use it.  In this verse the Apostle Paul was speaking about the trial of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, and how Abraham’s exercise of blind faith was a key element in his spiritual development.  His faith became strong because of that experience and I want my faith to grow stronger.  Although I do not know what God will allow in my life in the future to accomplish that, I can see ways in which that has already happened in my life experiences, events that have been difficult but through which I continued to give glory to God and saw the result of stronger faith.  I hope and pray that I will always live out this important spiritual principle.

Faith, hope and love

I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There were three things that encouraged Paul as he prayed for these believers in Thessalonica: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Christ.  These encouraging aspects of their Christian walk were also the object of his prayers for them.  I was thinking about this – he was praying about things in their lives that were already manifesting themselves, so why was he praying about those same things?  These are the same three items listed in I Corinthians 13 as characteristics most important in the life of a believer: faith, hope and love.  Faith that creates works that please and honor God, hope that keeps one’s faith strong and forward-looking, and love that forms the basis of all a believer is or does.  Prayer was necessary because these three characteristics of a believer are also fragile and easily weakened or lost by a loss of vision or spiritual life.  Paul understood that principle so he prayed for them even while thanking God for those being displayed in their lives.