11 fruits of authentic faith

Maybe you have a long list of all the wonderful qualities you hope to find in a spouse // perhaps you expect close friends to meet certain criteria. I find it so easy to take a list of biblical standards & analyze my neighbor’s conduct rather than my own. I pull out the measuring stick of faithfulness and proceed to quantify another’s commitment to righteousness. What if instead of identifying specks in our friend’s eyes we stared ourselves in the face long enough to locate the log in our own eye ?? I think we’d see a lot of much needed growth in our own lives.

these 11 qualities comes from a resource within my Bible, but I’ve added a few verses for each to provide biblical proof//reasoning for each. I pray that these scriptures would prove useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that you may be complete & equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Let’s start praying that these qualities would be manifested in our own life as an overflow of our passion & pursuit of Christ.

1— LOVE FOR GOD

Psalm 42:1 “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

Luke 10:27 “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’"

Romans 8:7 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.”

2— REPENTANCE OF SIN

Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Proverbs 28:13 “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

Romans 7:14 “ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.”

2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

1 John 1:8-10 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

3— GENUINE HUMILITY

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

Matthew 5:1-12 beatitudes

James 4:6 " But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’"

4— DEVOTION TO GOD’S GLORY

Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Psalm 105:3 “Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!”

Psalm 115:1 “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

Isaiah 48:10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24 "Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’”

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

5— CONTINUAL PRAYER

Luke 18:1 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

Ephesians 6:18 “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”

Philippians 4:6 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

1 Timothy 2:1-4 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

James 5:16-18 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

6— SELFLESS LOVE

1 John 2:9 “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”

1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

7— SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD

1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

James 4:4 “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

1 John 5:5 “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

8— SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Luke 8:15 “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

John 15:1-6 ““I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

Ephesians 4:12-16 “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

9— OBEDIENT LIVING

Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Romans 16:26 “but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith“

1 Peter 1:2 “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood”

1 Peter 1:22 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart”

1 John 2:3-5 “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him”

10— HUNGER FOR GOD’S WORD

1 Peter 2:1-3 “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

11— TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”