Faith that grows
By Charles Christian
A well-known minister and Christian theologian named Stanley Hauerwas once said, “As people of faith, we should live our lives in such a way that our lives would make no sense without God.”
In other words, for people of faith reliance upon God should be our defining characteristic. For Christians, this means making the characteristics of Jesus expressed in the Bible central to the way we treat others and the choices we make each day.
No honest Christian would claim that those of us who profess the ways of Jesus can always live out those ways perfectly, of course. This seems to be true for all faiths. However, the reason we live by faith is that we trust that God can help us to say “yes” to the ways of God and “no” to the ways that are contrary to His purposes consistently. This consistency includes learning from our mistakes, asking forgiveness when needed and adjusting our lives as we grow. All of this takes dependence upon God and help from other believers who share in our journey.
To neglect this aspect of the faith is to be what another writer called a “functional atheist,” one who may claim to be a believer in God but whose choices are rarely guided by His ways or the faith they profess.
One New Testament passage reminds us that when we allow God to guide us, we can “grow in grace”: “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
As people who take faith seriously, we are called to grow. Thankfully, because we are imperfect, we grow “in grace,” trusting the patience of forgiveness of God to work for us and through us.
