Paul’s Prayer for You! Part 4

Growing in Faith

When you exercise the faith God provides for you, you enter His Kingdom through His salvation. His salvation carries with it a plan for you. God, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, has a plan for you! And by extension, you have a purpose in His Kingdom, such that He has prepared good works in advance for you to do.  

Can you see that the context of asking what works God has created for you to do must be placed in the context of grace through faith (v.8)? Outside of your belief in Jesus Christ, you can do nothing to earn rank or favor with God. The reason you are saved through faith is so that he can display in you the “incomparable riches of His grace” (v.7). You are where you are in your relationship with Christ by faith. This statement underscores two things. You can’t do anything to earn His salivation.

Neither can you grow in relationship with Him without growing in faith, for without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). If you can see this, then you can say with confidence that the outcome of growth in relationship with Him is growth in faith.  

 Look at Ephesians 2:8 again. The faith you have been saved by is provided by God: You have been saved by grace through faith…and this not from you but from God. God saved you by grace through faith. Your walk with Him requires faith. 

We have works to do and we’re going to need faith to do them!