Growing in Faith

Growing in faith comes through the degree in which we are willing to trust God. Faith is often an illusive ideal if it is not practiced on a continuous and consistent basis. This is not to say that we all do not struggle with faith at some point in our lives. We all experience the dessert times in our lives in which God seems distant and even aloof.

There are many ways to grow deeper and richer in faith. Personal piety and ongoing devotion is one way. Spiritual practices such as centering prayer or walking the labyrinth are just a couple of examples of others. But to truly grow in faith requires a commitment to Christ and a spiritual grounding in his Church. This means a consistent practice of praying the Daily Office and attending the Eucharist.

Often we only turn to God when there is a crisis in our lives. We desperately send up prayers, hoping against hope that one of them will stick. This is not the way to grow in a deeper relationship with Christ. Faith takes time to cultivate and nurture. Faith comes from our participation in the life of the church, mainly through the practice of liturgy and corporate worship.

We all to often think that we can arrive at a deep and sincere faith on our own, and perhaps we do develop faith to a certain degree. But if we don’t participate in the full Body of Christ we lose so much opportunity to genuinely grow in a transformative manner. Faith is transformative. It changes our lives and the way in which we think, act and pray. We need one another in order to grow and blossom in our faith in God. Faith calls us to an active life in Christ, meaning an active life in his Church. Why is the church so important? It is through our sacramental liturgy and theology that we experience the risen Christ. The more we participate in the liturgy, the deeper we are drawn to the center of Christ.

Attending church twice a year or sporadically doesn’t benefit our faith. Sacramental Faith draws us into the Apostolic Faith. It is here that we experience spiritual disciplines, maturity in faith and a full spiritual life. We become flexible with ourselves, as well as others. The Apostolic Faith grounds us in competency, and allows us to become more committed Christians.

It is important to remember that faith is an action verb. It doesn’t just occur passively. We must actively seek to grow in our faith by committing our lives to a Christ centered life, allowing ourselves to build a deeper relationship with both Jesus and one another. Faith is like exercising, we don’t just go out and run twenty miles. We have to work our way up to that point over time. Once we are there however we are not to rest on our laurels. If we do we will not progress in faith, but actually slide backwards.

During this season of Epiphany I invite folks to begin to experiment with their willingness to grow ever closer towards the center of the church. It is there that we will experience transformation and renewal of our faith. Remember what the Apostle James said, “Faith without works is dead.”