Oct 16, 2020 … Growing Faith

Berry Patch Devotions in 2020 - Day 290 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...    Please take the time to take in images, song, and lyrics from the group Rascal Flatts singing … Unstoppable … powerfully singing of how we, as Christians, can grow our faith strong enough to make us unstoppable in life. 

The growth of the mustard seed ... 

 

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Highlight Passage:  Matthew 13:31-32 [ESV] ... 

31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 

…   Jesus shows believers in Him how their growing faith, like a mustard seed becoming a tree, will allow them to become strong to overcome the trials of life.  

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  Matthew 12:31-33 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus relates parables to who His followers how growing in faith in Him allows believers to become strong in dealing with the trials and storms of life.

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Reference Passage: …  Proverbs 3:5-6 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Solomon relates God’s warning that we grow in faith by trusting - COMPLETELY - in God’s way and following it faithfully.  

Reference Passage: …  Hebrews 11:1, 6 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… We must grow in faith to grow in Christlikeness.

Reference Passage: …  1Peter 2:2-3 [ESV] …  

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  

… Like babes, we grow by taking in the milk, then the meat, of God’s Spiritual food found in His word. 

Reference Passage: …  2Peter 3:17-18 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… As Christians we need to avoid what the world is feeding us and grow in God’s grace by feeding on His truth. 

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Glenn Packiam, AT THIS LINK  relates a story of how viewing a friend’s worldly “success,” rising to the top in the entertainment world, distorts what Jesus related about Godly “success,” … which The Lord compared to a mustard seed growing into a strong tree (see photo and highlight passage). 

We grow in Christ, [see Scriptures above] not by our faith being fed by the world’s formula, but rather by planting God’s seeds of truth into our lives, by faith, and then feeding a small seed of faith in the soil of God’s truth, and letting it grow into a strong tree out in the world for all to see, which can withstand all the winds of trial we will confront in life.

That’s why you find me here each day, starting MY day by watering and nourishing the seeds of MY faith from the living waters of God’s truth; and seeing MY roots of Christlikeness go deeper and deeper to allow MY faith roots to grow into branches where MY actions show themselves strong, … revealing the strength of Christ in what other see in me.  I pray we all do that each day to allow our faith to flourish and grow. 

 

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for giving me nourishment of Your word to grow my seed of faith into a strong tree able to withstand the winds of this world. 

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray that all reading here will join me to plant our seeds of faith deeply into God’s soil of truth and then to nourish those seeds to grow into strong trees of Christlike action.  … Amen

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.