Bible Verses About Growing in Faith describe how trust in God deepens over time, much like a seed becoming a fruitful plant. Scripture does not expect believers to stay where they began. It speaks of roots going deeper, of milk giving way to solid food, and of trials that refine. These passages explain what that growth involves and who makes it possible.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8 (KJV)
Peter lists qualities to add to faith, from virtue to charity, so that believers are neither barren nor unfruitful.
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
2 Peter 3:18 (KJV)
Believers are told to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7 (KJV)
Having received Christ, we walk in Him, rooted, built up and stablished in the faith with thanksgiving.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17 (KJV)
Faith comes by hearing the word of God, which explains why Scripture is central to spiritual growth.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Hebrews 5:12-14 (KJV)
The writer contrasts milk and strong meat, showing that mature believers grow by exercising discernment.
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1 Peter 2:2 (KJV)
Like newborn babes, we should desire the sincere milk of the word so that we may grow.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:2-4 (KJV)
Trials test our faith and produce patience, and patience left to work makes us perfect and entire.
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Ephesians 4:14-15 (KJV)
Paul wants believers to stop being tossed by every wind of doctrine and grow up into Christ in all things.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6 (KJV)
God, who began a good work in us, will keep performing it until the day of Jesus Christ.
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
2 Thessalonians 1:3 (KJV)
Paul thanks God because the Thessalonians’ faith grows exceedingly and their love abounds toward one another.
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Luke 17:5-6 (KJV)
When the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, He teaches that even faith like a mustard seed is powerful.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2 (KJV)
Growth involves being transformed by the renewing of the mind rather than conformed to the world.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jude 1:20-21 (KJV)
Jude urges believers to build themselves up on their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (KJV)
Running the race with patience means looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
Mark 4:26-28 (KJV)
Jesus compares God’s kingdom to seed that grows gradually, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psalms 1:1-3 (KJV)
The person who delights in God’s law and meditates on it day and night grows like a fruitful tree.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 1:6-7 (KJV)
Trials refine faith like gold tried in fire, making it more precious and genuine.
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Matthew 17:20 (KJV)
Jesus teaches that faith as small as a grain of mustard seed can move mountains.
Scripture presents faith as something living that is meant to grow. 2 Peter 3:18 tells believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and Colossians 2:6-7 uses the picture of roots going down and a building rising up. Jesus used a similar image in Mark 4:26-28, where seed grows gradually, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn.
The Bible names several means God uses. His word is central, since Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing it, and 1 Peter 2:2 urges believers to desire it like newborn babies want milk. Trials play a part too. James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-7 teach that testing produces patience and refines faith like gold in a furnace. Prayer and fellowship matter as well, as Jude 1:20-21 encourages believers to build one another up in faith.
The disciples offer a clear example. In Luke 17:5 they asked Jesus to increase their faith, and over time these fearful followers became bold witnesses. Yet the Bible is clear that growth ultimately depends on God. Philippians 1:6 promises that He who began a good work will carry it on to completion.
2 Thessalonians 1:3’s description of faith that “groweth exceedingly” treats faith as something that genuinely develops, not a fixed quantity.
Bible Verses For Family Unity and Bible Verses For Loving Others explore related themes.
Want the wider context? The complete King James Version is available at Blue Letter Bible.
If you want to keep reading, Bible Verses About Grief and Bible Verses About Grace sit close to this topic.
For a related angle, see Bible Verses About Healing or Bible Verses About Being Thankful.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses About Strength and Hope and Bible Verses About Forgiveness and Healing.
You might also turn to Bible Verses About Having Faith and Bible Verses For Growing in Faith.
Comparing translations can help, and Bible Gateway does that for free.
Bible Hub offers commentary and cross-references for each verse.
Faith, biblically, is described as something that grows over time, not a fixed amount given once.
These verses were never meant to sit on a page as decoration \u2014 they’re meant to shape how you actually respond the next time your faith feels the same as it did a year ago, and you’d like it to grow.
You don’t need polished or formal language for it \u2014 an honest, plainly worded sentence is enough, something as simple as telling God directly for a faith that’s actively growing, not just present.
Abraham is often called the father of faith, yet his story shows faith that grew over decades rather than arriving fully formed. It began with obedience: he “went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8). Soon after, fear led him to pass off Sarah as his sister in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). Later he and Sarah tried to secure the promised heir through Hagar (Genesis 16). His faith was real, but it was still young and mixed with self-reliance.
Along the way God kept speaking and Abraham kept listening. In Genesis 15:6, “he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Years later came the hardest test, the call to offer Isaac. This time Abraham told his son, “God will provide himself a lamb” (Genesis 22:8), and Hebrews 11:19 says he reasoned that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead. Paul sums up the mature Abraham: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20).
Abraham’s story gives flesh to many Bible verses about growing in faith. James 2:23 notes that he “was called the Friend of God,” a title that grew out of years of walking with the Lord, including his failures. Friendship with God, like any friendship, deepens through time spent together and trust tested in real circumstances.
Read alongside other passages on this theme, Abraham’s life reassures anyone who feels their progress is slow or uneven.
John tells readers plainly why he wrote: “these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). His Gospel repeatedly shows people moving from curiosity or doubt toward deeper trust, which makes it a deep source of passages on spiritual growth.
After Jesus turned water into wine, John notes, “his disciples believed on him” (John 2:11). They had already followed him, yet their faith grew as they watched him act. Belief in John is often something that deepens as people see more of who Jesus is. This pattern echoes other Bible verses about growing in faith, such as 2 Peter 3:18, which ties growth to knowing Christ.
Nicodemus first came to Jesus by night (John 3:2). Later he cautiously defended him before the council (John 7:50-51). Finally, after the crucifixion, he openly brought about a hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes for Jesus’ burial (John 19:39). His faith moved from hidden questions to public devotion. Few passages on spiritual growth picture the process as clearly as these three brief scenes.
Thomas refused to believe the resurrection without evidence. Jesus met him with patience, and Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Among these passages, his confession shows that honest questions brought to Jesus can end in worship.
Reading John slowly, perhaps one chapter a day for three weeks, lets these Bible verses about growing in faith unfold in their setting. Notice each time someone “believed,” and ask what they had just seen or heard.
This plan follows the people traced above and adds a few companion passages. Read one passage a day, note one sentence that stands out, and ask God to make it real in your life. Each reading takes about ten minutes. Pair each day with one of the verses quoted above for a fuller picture.
Choose just one from the plan. Mark 9:24 is short and honest, and many believers find it the most useful of all Bible verses about growing in faith because it can be prayed on any day, in any mood. Write it on a card, repeat it each morning, and notice how often it comes to mind when you face uncertainty. At the end of the week, write a few lines about what changed in your thinking.
Many believers wonder whether they are growing at all. Feelings are an unreliable measure, so Scripture points to other signs. Among Bible verses about growing in faith, Galatians 5:22-23 gives one of the clearest pictures: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. These qualities tend to grow quietly, often noticed first by others.
Dry seasons do not mean faith has died. Abraham waited many years between promises, and Nicodemus took his time. Continue with simple habits: reading, prayer, worship and honest conversation with other believers. If a hard season is shaking your trust, the collection of Bible verses about faith during trials may help. For practical ways to build these habits into daily life, see the companion page of Bible verses for growing in faith.
Returning to these verses during slow seasons keeps your eyes on the God who is still at work, even when you cannot see the progress yourself.
Jesus told a short farming story that most of us would like to edit. “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:26-28). The man scatters seed and then, apparently, goes about his ordinary life. He sleeps. He gets up. Weeks pass.
What stands out is how little the farmer controls. He did not design the way a kernel splits open or how a root finds water. His part was real but small: put the seed in the ground. The rest happened in a place he could not watch. Anyone who has stared at a pot of soil waiting for a green shoot knows how hard that is on the nerves.
Faith often works like that. You read a chapter, say a prayer in the car, forgive someone grudgingly, and nothing seems different. Then a year later you notice you no longer panic the way you used to. The order Jesus gives matters too: blade first, ear second, full grain last. Nobody is handed a harvest on day one, and being in the blade stage does not mean something has gone wrong with you.
The shortest prayer about this subject may be the one in Luke 17:5, where the apostles say, “Lord, increase our faith.” It is easy to read it as a pious moment, but look at what came right before. Jesus had just told them that if a brother wrongs them seven times in one day and says he is sorry each time, they must forgive him each time. No wonder they asked. That is a heavy thing to be told over lunch.
His reply is the well-known one about a grain of mustard seed and a sycamine tree uprooted and planted in the sea (Luke 17:6). The point is not that the disciples had too little. A seed that small, he says, is enough to do something that looks absurd. Size was never the problem. The disciples were measuring faith like a bank balance, and Jesus pointed them toward its living quality instead.
There is something honest in the way they asked, though. They did not pretend to have it all together. They named a gap and brought it directly to him. If you feel stretched by a command in Scripture that seems bigger than you can manage, you can pray the same six words in the middle of your day. Growth often starts with admitting the assignment is beyond you.
The writer of Hebrews does not flatter his readers. They had been believers long enough to teach others, he says, and yet they needed someone to go back over the basics with them. “For every one that useth milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14).
Look at the phrase “by reason of use.” Maturity here comes from practice, in the way a carpenter learns to feel when a joint is true. It is not described as a download of information. These readers were facing pressure from their own community, and many were tempted to drift back to old customs. Staying soft and unpracticed had left them without the judgment they needed.
Peter uses the same picture in a gentler tone: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). Both passages are fine with milk. Nobody is scolded for being new. The warning in Hebrews is only for staying there by choice. A practical test might be this: what could you explain to a friend right now that you could not have explained two years ago? If the answer is nothing, that is useful to know, and it can be fixed.
It surprises some readers that a collection about growth includes verses on trouble. James opens with, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:2-3). Peter writes to scattered believers who were grieving under pressure and compares their trials to gold in a furnace, saying the proving of faith is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire” (1 Peter 1:7).
Both writers are careful not to say the pain itself is good. They are saying that something real gets formed while a person is going through it. A refiner heats metal so the impurities rise and can be skimmed off, and what remains is the part worth keeping. Anyone who has sat through a long illness in the family or a stretch of unemployment will know the difference between a faith that was only decoration and a faith that held weight.
A gentle caution is in order. These verses are for the person inside the trouble, reading them on their own terms. They are not for use as a quick reply to someone else’s grief. If a friend has just lost a job, a casserole and a listening ear will say more than a quotation. And if the weight of your own season feels too heavy, tell a pastor or a counselor, because Scripture was never meant to replace the people who can sit beside you.
Paul says plainly that growth is not a solo hobby. In Ephesians 4:14-15 he wants his readers to stop being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” and instead to be “speaking the truth in love,” so they “may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” The picture is a boat without a keel on one side and a body with a working head on the other. Truth and love are meant to travel together, and each one goes bad when it is separated from the other.
This gives a practical angle that is easy to miss. A believer who only collects verses privately may feel spiritual and still never be corrected, encouraged, or asked a hard question. Growth in the New Testament happens around tables, in letters read aloud, in people who knew each other’s weaknesses. A small group that meets on Thursday nights and actually talks about the passage will often do more than another podcast.
Comparison deserves a warning here. Looking at someone who seems far ahead can leave you feeling stuck, and the opposite habit, measuring yourself against someone who seems behind, makes you proud. Paul’s measuring line is Christ, not the person in the next pew. Take one step you can name this week, and let the rest come in its own season.
Readers interested in this topic often continue with Bible Verses For Growing in Faith, Bible Verses For Having Faith, Bible Verses About Faith in God, Bible Verses About Prayer and Faith and Bible Verses About Strong Faith.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Scripture presents faith as something living that is meant to grow. 2 Peter 3:18 tells believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and Colossians 2:6-7 uses the picture of roots going down and a building rising up.
This page brings together 32 King James Version references about growing in Faith, drawn from 15 different books of the Bible.
2 Peter 3:18 is one of the verses about growing in Faith referenced in this collection, alongside Colossians 2:6.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including 2 Peter 3:18, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, growing in Faith appears throughout Scripture in books such as 2 Peter, Colossians, Mark, Romans, 1 Peter; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
