Young Adults' Group

Progress Of Faith

by Pastor Mark
September 21, 2017

Checking our progress

We are almost coming to the end of September and three quarters of the year have flown by all too quickly. It is timely for us to have a pause and ask ourselves how have we progressed in our faith. Have we grown and made progress in our faith since the beginning of the year?

One reason for the Apostle Paul to remain with the Philippian brethren was for their “progress of faith.” (Phil 1:25) How should we understand our progress of faith?

Progress of faith

The word “progress” in the Greek is “prokope” which is a compound word made up of two words…“pro” which means “before or front” and “kopto” which means “to cut”. It literally means to cut through whatever is in front and to advance…to make progress.

Faith is meant to advance and to progress. We want to move forward in our faith and not be hindered in anyway. If we are not progressing, then we are deteriorating in our growth. If this is not kept in check, another year will go by us without seeing any progress in our faith.

Determining our progress

There are different aspects of growth that our faith should be involved in.

1. Salvation…Beginning of our faith
2. Sanctification…Cleansing of our life through faith in the Lord
3. Separation…Faith guides us to live a life distinct from the world
4. Service…Practising our faith in ministry
5. Specific ministry…Applying our faith to a more specific area of ministry that we are called to
6. Suffering…Test of our faith
7. Sustaining…Strength of our faith to last out

These are different aspects of our faith that we want to consider for ourselves. How much have we grown in these different aspects of our faith? Let us measure our faith according to this checklist that we may understand whether we have progressed in our faith.

An important means of progressing

“Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.” (1 Tim 4:15)

Paul gave this challenge to Timothy to progress. The Word of God is an important means of progressing. The word “meditate” means to “ponder deeply”. Timothy was to ponder deeply on “these things” which was a reference to all the things that Paul had taught. This is the reservoir of truth that Paul had given to Timothy. Let us be challenged to meditate…to study and think over the Word of God. We are to “give ourselves entirely to them.” There is only one Greek word that describes these phrase…“isthi” which means “to be”. The Word of God must become part of our life and may be manifested to all.

Our challenge is to meditate and to understand the Word of God until it becomes a definite part of our life. This is when progress will be evident to all. There would be changes to our life. There will be growth of faith and life. As we look ahead to the final quarter of 2017, let us be challenged to truly progress in our faith.

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