Did you know that Jesus wants you to thrive in your faith? He isn’t interested in you barely surviving or just getting by. Jesus wants you to experience the fullness of His presence. Left to ourselves, we would settle for the basics, but He has positioned us to thrive in our faith. That happens by us taking that next step of faith and following Him.
Colossians 1:10-11
“so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully”
Encouraged to Grow
The Apostle Paul’s prayers for the churches are theological gold. Not only do you see his heart and love for the people, but you see his desire that they grow in their faith. In Colossians, he is praying for a church he hasn’t met, but since he had heard of their faith has prayed for them daily. Two guys who got saved in Ephesus went back to their hometown of Colossae and started preaching the Gospel. Now they had a small thriving church, and Paul was encouraging them to grow in the knowledge of God.
Endurance to the End
One of the most crucial aspects of our faith is endurance. We have to be able to persevere through all of the challenges life throws at us. The traits that strengthen that endurance is obedience, knowledge, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul wanted the Colossians to walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him. That means we are to live in obedience to the Word of God doing what is says and avoiding the traps of sin. We are also to grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. The more we know of Him, the more it draws us into an intimate relationship. Finally, we need to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We can’t survive without Him. It is His power that sustains us. He gives us the endurance, patience, and joy that is necessary for our faith to thrive.