Faith in Jesus—believing in His sacrificial death for our sins and His resurrection—is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with God. But this is not where the journey ends. Like any relationship, there is so much more to learn and explore beyond the first encounter.

Consider a good friend or perhaps your spouse. You likely didn’t learn all about your best friend’s childhood in your first meeting. You likely didn’t understand your spouse’s deepest fears and dreams on the first date. No matter how much you may have connected initially – perhaps feeling like you had known him/her all your life – it took time and intentionality to develop the relationship and build genuine connection and intimacy. The same is true with God.

When you genuinely place your faith in God by repenting of your sins and deciding to agree with the truth of who Jesus is, you are saved from an eternity separated from God in a place called hell. But salvation is just the beginning.

Growing in our faith is part of the ongoing process of sanctification—a big word that simply means becoming more like Jesus. Some of the ways we grow in our faith are through:

• Abiding in Christ,

• Spending time with God in prayer and worship,

• Intentionally reading and studying Scripture,

• Obeying what we learn in Scripture

• Putting our faith into action, and

• Listening to the Holy Spirit

The more we know God, the more we will love Him and want to be like Him. As we spend time and develop a relationship with Him, we will develop more of the attributes of God’s Spirit as described by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:16-26). We will never reach perfection, and He doesn’t expect perfection from us, but over time we will become more like Him as we abide in Him.

In John 15, Jesus tells us to remain or abide in Him. He uses the metaphor of a branch (representing us) being connected to the vine (representing Him). He goes on to say that we are not only expected to remain connected to Him but that is the only way that good “produce” can come from our lives. In other words, we cannot grow, mature, and positively become more like Him without being actively connected to Him.

As we soak in His presence, our spirit aligns with His. As we read His Word, our soul begins to reflect His truth. Sanctification is the lifelong journey of being transformed—day by day and choice by choice—into the image of Christ. This process will challenge your spirit and expose your flesh. Over time you will notice it changes how you spend your money, what you laugh at, what you find entertaining, how you respond (or don’t respond) to the ungodly behavior of others, and more. You will even find that bad habits and addictions are suddenly gone.

Ephesians 4:13 (NLT) says it beautifully: “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” Learning and growing in our faith is a matter of increasing in the knowledge of God through His Son, Jesus. And Jesus Christ is the standard by which we measure our maturity...not other people, not our friends, not our pastors, not our favorite social media personality.

Growing in faith—through abiding, prayer, worship, and time in God’s Word—is how we become more like Christ. Even when we fall short (and we all do), Jesus’ deepest desire is that our faith in Him would not fail (Luke 22:32).

So put your best faith forward, in Christ!