The Key to Growing in Your Faith

Being faithful means having the basic truth of Christ—having faith not in ourselves but in God. Faith is the essence of all our strength in God.

Faith is in what we know. We know we have a Creator and a Redeemer. In faith, we strive to know Him in spirit and in our actions. Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10, NIV).

Our very first petition should be that we become intimate with Christ so we live in His presence and constantly seek His guidance, His wisdom, His knowledge and His strength. We know that He is real and relevant.

Knowing God comes by staying in His Word, allowing it to be made real in us. When we let the Word of God dwell in us richly, the Spirit transforms our minds and shapes our focus and desires (Ps. 1:2-3).

Meditating on the Word every day and seeking the Lord through His Word will give us a mindset of peace. Memorize Scripture, and pray the Word back to the Lord. Then stand on those claims that are written about us as His children.

When Isaiah wrote, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Is. 26:3), he was implying he had peace when he read God’s Word. He trusted in it rather than his own intelligence.

If we are to have perfect peace, our minds must be fixed on God and His kingdom and not on the world. Devoting time to reading the Bible helps us fight worry. And one of the best ways to get the Word of God into every part of our lives is to memorize it (Prov. 4:20-22).

We must be ready for the Word so that when it is sown into us, it will give a hundredfold return. We must meditate on the Word and have that Word dictate the thoughts of our hearts.

Joshua 1:8 reads, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Here God is telling Joshua that if he follows God’s directions and if he is rooted in the truth, then God will provide. The same is true for us.

Faithfulness requires that we must come to know God through His Word—His truth. We must pray it, proclaim it, believe it and then live it. This is the only way to be a faithful servant of the Lord.

James P. Gills, M.D., is the author of Rx for Worry: A Thankful Heart (Charisma House), from which this article is adapted.