God gives us growth, but there are many ways we can place ourselves to grow in the Lord. Some of these can be practiced daily by every Christian, while others, like suffering, are beyond our control. What matters is to train yourself to approach them with love and willingness so that your relationship with God may grow.
1. Hearing the Word of God
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes through the message about Christ!
Romans 10:17
2. Obedience
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24-25
3. Suffering
“But we felt this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:9
4. Growing in the Fruits of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.”
Galatians 5:22
5. Abiding in Christ
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
6. Doing Good Works
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”
James 2:17-18
7. Trusting and Relying on God
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6:25-27
8. Prayer
“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”
Mark 11:23
9. Fasting
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4